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Multicenter Study
. 2014 Oct 6;9(1):25451.
doi: 10.3402/ljm.v9.25451. eCollection 2014.

Prevalence of antibacterial resistant bacterial contaminants from mobile phones of hospital inpatients

B Vinod Kumar  1 , Yahya Hasan Hobani  2 , Ahmed Abdulhaq  3 , Ahmed Ali Jerah  4 , Othman M Hakami  4 , Magdeldin Eltigani  4 , Anil K Bidwai  4
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Prevalence of antibacterial resistant bacterial contaminants from mobile phones of hospital inpatients

B Vinod Kumar et al. Libyan J Med. .

Abstract

Mobile phones contaminated with bacteria may act as fomites. Antibiotic resistant bacterial contamination of mobile phones of inpatients was studied. One hundred and six samples were collected from mobile phones of patients admitted in various hospitals in Jazan province of Saudi Arabia. Eighty-nine (83.9%) out of 106 mobile phones were found to be contaminated with bacteria. Fifty-two (49.0%) coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, 12 (11.3%) Staphylococcus aureus, 7 (6.6%) Enterobacter cloacae, 3 (2.83%) Pseudomonas stutzeri, 3 (2.83%) Sphingomonas paucimobilis, 2 (1.8%) Enterococcus faecalis and 10 (9.4%) aerobic spore bearers were isolated. All the isolated bacteria were found to be resistant to various antibiotics. Hence, regular disinfection of mobile phones of hospital inpatients is advised.

Keywords: Antibacterial resistant; bacterial contaminants; mobile phones.

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