Bacterial contamination of mobile phones of health care providers in a teaching hospital in Hamadan Province, Iran

Abstract

Background: The use of mobile phone by clinical staffs enhances transmission of pathogens and therefore, might intensify the hardship of interrupting infection spread. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine bacterial colonization on the mobile phones used by clinical staffs in hospitals. Patients and Methods: We randomly selected and examined 250 mobile phones from their users. The phones were obtained from the following study groups: Group A, 125 clinical staffs including physicians, nurses, residents, and interns; and group B, 125 university headquarters staffs. Isolated microorganisms were identified using biochemical tests such as Gram stain, morphology, catalase, and oxidase reaction, and all isolates were allocated to appropriate genera. Antibiotic sensitivity test was done using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Results: In total, 99.2% of mobile phones in clinical staffs group demonstrated growth of bacterial species. The most common isolate were consecutively coagulase-negative staphylococci (82.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (20.0%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12.0%). Among controls, 93.6% of mobile phones demonstrated growth of bacterial species. For eradication of coagulase-negative staphylococci, the highest resistance rate was detected to oxacillin. For inhibition of S. aureus, the highest resistance was detected to Oxacillin. For eradicating P. aeruginosa, considerable resistance rate to ampicillin was detected in both study groups. Conclusions: Mobiles contamination with different pathogens is extremely common among our health care staffs compared with other societies, and resistance of these isolates to various antibiotics is also detectable. Thus, quick assessment of this issue to prevent the spread of these infectious agents is critical for the authorities in our health care systems.