DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i07.069

Pages: 2627-2629

Mobile phones of health professionals can harbour various potential pathogens and can become source of infection for the patients, self and for family members. The purpose of the study is to isolate and determine the resistance pattern of bacteria from mobile phones of health care workers working in ICUs. A sterile cotton swab moistened with sterile normal saline was rolled over exposed surfaces of mobile phones and used for inoculating on Blood agar and Mac Conkey’s agar and inoculated plates were incubated aerobically for 18- 24 hours at 370 C . Identification of isolates was done by Gram’s staining and standard biochemical reactions . Antibiotic sensitivity was put up on Mullen Hinton agar by Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method. Oxacillin disk was used for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus detection. Mobile phones of 20 doctors, 25 nurses, 5 ward boys and 5 safai karmacharies were included in the study and 20 mobile phones of non health care workers were taken as controls. Bacteriological analysis revealed that, 40 mobile phones of health care workers and 12 mobile phones of non health care workers were contaminated with bacteria .Organisms isolated were CONS, MRSA, MSSA, Micrococcus and ASBs. Development of effective preventive strategies such as hand hygiene, regular decontamination of mobile phones can prevent spread of infections.