Bacterial contamination of mobile communication devices in the operative environment

Brady, Richard; Fraser, Sheena; Dunlop, Malcolm; Paterson-Brown, Simon; Gibb, A.P.

doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2007.04.015

Cited by 99 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Micro-organisms can be transferred from person to person or from inanimate objects (such as stethoscopes, bronchoscopes, pagers, ballpoint pens, patient hospital charts ,computer keyboards, mobile phones and fixed telephones) to hands and vice versa [4,6,8,11,[13][14][15][16][17][18] .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bacterial Contamination and Resistance to Commonly Used Antimicrobials of Healthcare Workers' Mobile Phones in Teaching Hospitals, Kerman, Iran

Sepehri¹

2009

American Journal of Applied Sciences

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Problem Statement:The contamination rates of Health Care Worker's (HCW) mobile phones and resistance to commonly used antimicrobials were evaluated in three teaching hospitals in Kerman, Iran. So, we examined 150 randomly selected HCWs in three teaching hospitals in Kerman, Iran, 2007. For each HCW a sterile swab moistened with sterile water was rotated over the surface of both sides of his/her phone, a second swab for the sampling of the dominant hand. Both swabs were cultured by the routine methodology in use at laboratory. Plates were incubated aerobically at 37°C for 48 h. Approach: All samples were examined for the antimicrobial activity for commonly used antimicrobials using disc diffusion method. Results: A total of 48 (32.0%, CI95 24.6-40.1%) mobile phones and 59 (39.3%, CI95 31.5-47.6%) of dominant hands had bacterial contamination and Staphylococcus epidermidis was the most commonly cultured organisms from all sites. The resistance rates to commonly used antimicrobials in isolated bacteria from phones and dominant hand varied from 6.7% for cephalothin to 25% for amoxicillin, respectively. Conclusions/Recommendations: The kind of isolated microorganisms and their susceptibility to commonly used antimicrobials from dominant hands were almost similar with those from phones (p<0.05). In conclusion, the results indicated that the rate of bacterial contamination of the HCW's phone is just below 50%, accompanying with a resistance rate to the common used antibiotics in one fourth of all the cases. Therefore, mobile phones could be an important source of nosocomial infections and the spread of bacterial resistance bacteria in medical healthcare settings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hands and instruments used by healthcare workers (HCWs) may serve as vectors for the nosocomial transmission of microorganisms [4,5] . The use of mobile phones by medical personnel may serve as potential vehicles for the spread of nosocomial pathogens and the associated nosocomial transmission of pathogens [1,3,[6][7][8] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial Contamination and Resistance to Commonly Used Antimicrobials of Healthcare Workers' Mobile Phones in Teaching Hospitals, Kerman, Iran

Sepehri¹

2009

American Journal of Applied Sciences

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“…Positive cultures were further analyzed using Gram stain, Coagulase, and Catalase reactions. 11,12,14,15 After obtaining culture results, data from the lab and questionnaire were entered into Microsoft Excel. After data entry was done, data was exported to SPSS version 21 for analysis.…”

Section: Methods:-mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…12 Furthermore, a study that sampled 90 HCWs' mobile phones revealed that 70 (89.7%) mobile phones were contaminated by bacteria, 10 of them (11.5%) were contaminated with bacteria known to cause nosocomial infections. 15 Our study was conducted in King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC)-Riyadh. KAMC-Riyadh is a 962 bed tertiary care center located in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia, which is affiliated with King Saud Bin Abdul-Aziz University for Health Sciences.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial Contamination of Healthcare Workers’ Mobile Phones in a Tertiary Care Center in Saudi Arabia.

Almeshal.¹,

Asiri.²,

Alyamani.³

et al. 2017

IJAR

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Background: Mobile phones provide health care workers' (HCWs) with fast communication and quick access to medical information. Their frequent use in the hospital environment may pose a risk of spreading nosocomial infections. In this study, we aimed to determine the bacterial contamination of HCWs' mobile phones. Materials/Methods: Samples were collected from mobiles of HCWs' atKing Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh. A swab takenfrom the mobile phone and a questionnaire was answered by each subject. The swabs were sent to the lab for culture, carrying a serial number to indicate the questionnaire. Results: Of the 400 mobile phone samples, 171 (43%) showed bacterial growth. Different variables were examined. The number of male HCWs sampled was 167, 90 of them (54%) showed positive growth, while only 81(35%) of the 233 samples taken from female participants showed positive growth (p-value= <0.005). In addition, samples taken from phones that are frequently cleaned (226 samples) showed 10% less growth than mobile phones that are not frequently cleaned (p-value= 0.049). The most commonly isolated organism was Coagulase negative Staphylococci, which were isolated from 121(30%) phones of the mobile phones sampled. Discussion: More than one third of the HCWs' mobile phones were contaminated with bacteria. Our results showed that the degree of bacterial contamination in KAMC-Riyadh is less than studies done in other countries. The most common isolated organism in many of the reviewed studies was methicillin sensitive S.aureus, while in our study it was coagulase negative Staphylococci. Conclusion:More than one third of the HCWs mobile phones were contaminated by bacteria. The results support the claim that HCWs' mobile phones may serve as vectors for transmission of nosocomial infections, and that cleaning mobile phones may reduce this risk.

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“…However, they are frequently used in environments with a high bacterial presence and may act as mobile reservoirs for microbial pathogens of nosocomial and other infections [1][2][3][4][5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of keypads and touch-screen mobile phones/devices as potential risk for microbial contamination

Köroğlu

Günal

Yıldız

et al. 2015

J Infect Dev Ctries

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Introduction: Touch-screen mobile phones/devices (TMPs/Ds) are increasingly used in hospitals. They may act as a mobile reservoir for microbial pathogens. The rates of microbial contamination of TMPs/Ds and keypad mobile phones (KMPs) with respect to different variables including use by healthcare workers (HCWs)/non-HCWs and the demographic characteristics of users were investigated. Methodology: A total of 205 mobile phones/devices were screened for microbial contamination: 76 devices belonged to HCWs and 129 devices belonged to the non-HCW group. By rubbing swabs to front screen, back, keypad, and metallic surfaces of devices, 444 samples were collected. Results: Of 205 mobile phones/devices, 143 (97.9%) of the TMPs/Ds and 58 (98.3%) of the KMPs were positive for microbial contamination, and there were no significant differences in contamination rates between these groups, although TMPs/Ds had significantly higher microbial load than KMPs (p <0.05). The significant difference in this analysis was attributable to the screen size of mobile phones ≥ 5". Microbial contamination rates increased significantly as phone size increased (p <0.05). Higher numbers of coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CNS) were isolated from KMPs than TMPs/Ds (p = 0.049). The incidence of Enterococcus spp. was higher on the KMPs of HCWs, and methicillin resistant CNS was higher from the TMPs/Ds of non-HCWs (p <0.05). Isolation of CNS, Streptococcus spp. and Escherichia coli was higher from the TMPs/Ds of HCWs (p <0.05). Conclusions: We found no significant difference between TMP/Ds and KMPs in terms of microbial contamination, but TMP/Ds harboured more colonies and total microbial counts increased with screen size.

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Bacterial contamination of mobile communication devices in the operative environment

Cited by 99 publications

References 6 publications

Bacterial Contamination and Resistance to Commonly Used Antimicrobials of Healthcare Workers' Mobile Phones in Teaching Hospitals, Kerman, Iran

Bacterial Contamination and Resistance to Commonly Used Antimicrobials of Healthcare Workers' Mobile Phones in Teaching Hospitals, Kerman, Iran

Bacterial Contamination of Healthcare Workers’ Mobile Phones in a Tertiary Care Center in Saudi Arabia.

Comparison of keypads and touch-screen mobile phones/devices as potential risk for microbial contamination

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