Microbial contamination data of keypad and touch screen of cell phones among hospital and non-hospital staffs – A case study: Iran

Microorganisms live almost everywhere, they are even present on inanimate objects such as Mobile phones, as a result contaminates our body. The main purpose of this study was tantamount to compare microbial contamination of keypad and touch screen mobile cell phones between hospital and non-hospital staffs. Samples were collected from 456 cell phones of hospital and non-hospital. Microbial swab samples were taken from 1 cm2 of surface from each cell phone, and incubated on Brain Heart Infusion agar media at 37.5 °C for 24 h. Isolated microorganisms were grown aerobically on 55% defibrinated Sheep Blood and eosin methylene blue agar media at 37.5 °C for 48 h. In present study the antibiotic microorganism-resistant could not be observed. Overall, 456 cell phones were collected: 240 (52.63%) from hospital staff (nurses), 216 (47.36%) from non-hospital staff (health care worker outside the hospital). The result indicates that the bacterial contamination of phones used by all of different investigated groups was lower in touch screen devices than keypad devices and the contamination was found more in hospital staff cellphone than non-hospital staff׳s cell device. Woman׳s cell also has a few colonies rather than man׳s cell phones. The dominant microorganisms in the hospital staff were, Enterobacteriaceae, Bacillus species, especially Gram-positive bacteria sporulated and staphylococcal negative coagulase, respectively. Cell phones could be a serious threat to the spread of cross-infection in hospitals, therefore development of hand hygiene and cell phone cleaning guidelines is needed regarding public cell phone use. Keywords: Bacteria contamination, Keypad phone, Touch screen phone, Cell phone, Hospital, Gonabad, Ira