Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Mobile phone has become an important instrument of everyday life.Nevertheless, the widespread use of mobile phones for healthcare workers, it can be a vehicle for transmitting pathogenic bacteria.This study aimed to investigate the bacterial contamination of healthcare workers mobile phones in Tripoli, Libya.This cross-sectional study, from June to September 2022, involved 120 healthcare workers.A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather sociodemographic and phone usage data.The mobile phones of healthcare workers were swabbed for culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing.The included healthcare workers; were nurses, clinicians, laboratory personnels, and pharmacists, from different part in hospital; medical wards, surgical wards, maternity ward, intensive care units, laboratory, and pharmacy.58% of the participants never disinfected their phone, 40% disinfected their mobile phone occasionally, and only 2% always disinfected their phone.The overall prevalence of mobile phone contamination was 65%.The predominant isolates were coagulase-negative staphylococci, Klebsiella species, Burkholderia cepacia, and Pseudomonas species.Most isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin-clavulanic and ciprofloxacin antibiotics, while resistant to ampicillin was detected in all isolated bacteria.In conclusion, mobile phones of healthcare workers carry potentially pathogenic bacteria and can be a source of healthcareassociated infections in healthcare settings.Hence, regulations regarding the use of mobile
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4409604868