Cell-Phones May Be an Important Source of Hospital Infections

Cellular phones used by hospital healthcare workers are overwhelmingly contaminated with bacteria, fungi, and other pathogens, and could be a source of nosocomial infections, claims a new study.

Researchers at Ondokuz Mayis University (Samsun, Turkey) cultured pathogens found on the dominant hand and the mobile phones of 200 physicians, nurses, and other healthcare staff working in an 8-bed intensive care unit (ICU) and 14 operating rooms. They found 95% of the telephones contaminated, often with more than one species. Isolated microorganisms from hands and phones were similar. Of the nosocomial pathogens isolated from phones in ICUs, according to the report, 33% were staphylococci, 21% were nonfermentative Gram negative rods, 21% were coliforms, 7% were enterococci, and 12% were yeasts. Approximately half of the Staphylococcus aureus isolates were resistant to methicillin, while one third of Gram negative rods were resistant to ceftazidime. Upon questioning the study participants, the researchers found that 90% of participants never cleaned their mobile phones. The researchers therefore strongly recommend the routine decontamination of mobile phones. The study was published online on March 6, 2009, in the Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials, a publication of BioMed Central.

"Developing active preventive strategies like routine decontamination of mobile phones with alcohol containing disinfectant materials might reduce cross-infection. Another way of reducing bacterial contaminations on mobile phones might be the use of antimicrobial additive materials,” concluded lead author Fatma Ulger, M.D., of the department of anesthesiology and reanimation, and colleagues. "We could easily avoid spreading bacterial infections just by using regular cleansing agents and rearranging our environment. In the future mobile phones could be produced by using protective material against the bacterial contamination.” 

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Ondokuz Mayis University