Abstract
Objective: To find out the prevalence and type of microorganisms isolated from mobile phones used by health care workers, students working/studying in a tertiary care center as well as to find the rate of contamination of the hands of the individual.
 Methods: Swabs moistened with sterile saline was used to swab on phone surfaces and was incubated using standard culture and identification methods. The respective user was instructed to imprint their fingers of both hands on plates of culture media. These were incubated and processed as per standard culture methods.
 Results: The most common isolated microorganisms in both groups were Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CoNS) and MSSA. Among Mobile phones of HCW, the highest contamination rate was noted in physicians 70% followed by Intensive care doctors 60%, and Nurses. Finger impression growth rate was observed high among Nurses 70% followed by Intensive care doctors 60% and physicians 40%.
 Conclusion: There is found to be a moderate contamination rate of mobile phones and fingers with pathogenic bacteria as well as normal flora of skin isolated from health care workers. Mobile phones and hands of Health care workers serve as a potential reservoir for hospital-acquired infections as multi-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria. In order to reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections, there should be an implementation of handwashing practices.
Highlights
A mobile phone is a long-range personal telecommunication device, easy to handle, and affordable to everybody and play an inevitable and irreplaceable role in each one’s social and professional life
The various bacterial isolates recovered from mobile phones of HCWs were, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) (24; 548%), followed by methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) (11; 22%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (7;14%), Pseudomonas auerginosa (2; 4%), MRSA (5; 10%)
Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CoNS) were the most prevalent bacteria isolated from mobile phones (48%) and hands (57.7%), which correlates with the results (48%) of Srikanth et al In the present study, the mobile phones and fingerprints of HCWs showed a high contamination rate by bacteria
Summary
A mobile phone is a long-range personal telecommunication device, easy to handle, and affordable to everybody and play an inevitable and irreplaceable role in each one’s social and professional life. Mobile phones have become an inevitable part of our lives. Their number per capita is often much larger than the population of a country [1]. Mobile phones generate heat, which gives the microorganisms an incubating ground to live upon. The moisture obtained while the phone is left open and the nutrition obtained in case of food spillage over the phones serve as a prime breeding ground. The contamination of the mobile phones of health care workers or students could lead to nosocomial infections, which results in a declined quality of health care. The fingers from the hands of the individual using the mobile phone, being the major source of contamination from the fingers to the mobile phone surface and vice versa was considered in the study [2]
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