HospiStudy

MGM Finds Mobiles of Healthcare Personnel Cause Contamination

Mobile phones have become indispensable devices and restriction is not a practical solution, but a study of the flora harboured by mobile phones of healthcare personnel has shown that it is a deadly source of bacterial contamination.

The study was conducted by MGM Medical College and New Bombay Hospital, Navi Mumbai. The study was displayed at the 10th National Conference of the Hospital Infection Society, India, held in Pune recently. According to researcher Dr Chitra Pai, professor from MGM College, "Mobile phones are seldom cleaned by healthcare workers in spite of its use on a continuous basis. Hence, we decided to screen mobile phones of various categories of healthcare personnel for the presence of microbes." The research team took swabs from the phones of 120 healthcare personnel, including doctors, lab technicians, nurses and ward boys. It was found that 82 per cent of the mobile phones showed bacterial contamination.

"Mobiles are kept in pockets or handled with sweaty palms, which are good media for growth of microbes. We found that 82.5 per cent of the phones had microbes that could cause skin and throat infection,'' said Dr Pai. There have also traces of even the highly infectious MRSA or Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. "We isolated strains of staphylococci bacteria (54.6 per cent), micrococcus (20.83 per cent), candida (6.66 per cent, aspergillus (5 per cent), diptheriods (5 per cent) and gram negative bacteria (2.5 per cent),'' she said.

Hence, the study showed that healthcare personnel need to be made aware of the situation so that there is better adherence to infection control practices like hand hygiene and regular decontamination of mobile phones with disinfectants, which may be safely applied.

EH News Bureau