Bacterial Contamination of Mobile Phones: When Your Mobile Phone Could Transmit More Than Just a Call

Background: Mobile phones have become one of the most indispensable accessories of professional and social life. However, several researches have indicated the potential colonization of surfaces and their ability to transmit diseases (fomites) of which the mobile phone is no exception. Thus this present study investigates bacterial contamination of mobile phones and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Methodology: Surfaces of 100 mobile phones of randomly selected university students were aseptically swabbed. Serial dilution was used in quantification of bacterial with blood and MacConkey agars used in bacterial isolation. Gram reaction and biochemical reactions were applied in identification and the Kirby Buaer method employed in Antibiotic Sensitivity Testing. Results: There was 100% contamination of all the mobile phones surfaces with a mean bacterial count of 9.915x107cfu/ml with a total of 11 bacteria spp. isolated. The higher isolates include Bacillus cereus (23%) and Proteus mirabilis (19%), whilst the least isolate were Salmonella spp. (3%) and Shigella. spp. (2%). Pathogenic isolates made up 81.8% of all isolates 18.2%. Salmonella spp. and Shigella spp. showed the most resistance to the antibiotics (87.5%) each whilst Escherichia coli was the most susceptible bacteria to the antibiotics (75%). Amikacin (71.4%) and Gentamicin (63.6%) were the most effective antibiotics whilst Ampicillin, Penicillin, Cloxacillin showed the least effectiveness with 100% bacteria resistance. Conclusion: Thus mobile phones can be heavily colonized by high quantities of pathogenic bacteria and thus potential sources of disease transmission requiring application of sound personal hygiene as preventive methods.