Abstract

The etiological agents of Nosocomial infections may spread through the hands of healthcare workers and other instruments. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the contamination rate of the health care workers mobile phones in the Hawassa referral Hospital. Method: 152 Mobile phones was randomly sampled from wards, laboratory, ICU and operating rooms of doctors, nurses, Laboratory Technologists and other healthcare staffs were screened. The standard microbiological analysis was done. Results: The rate of bacterial contamination of mobile phones was 97.4%. It was found that 50.6% of phones grew one bacterial species, 25.0% two different species, 24.8% three or more different species and no bacterial growth were identified in 2.6% of phones. The bacterial species that isolated from mobile phone and hands of the HCW’s was S. aureus, CoNS, Streptococcus spp, E. coli, K. pneumonia, Proteus spp, Citrobacter spp, Shigella spp and P. aeruginosa. Ampicillin and Penicillin was less effective against the identified bacteria, whereas, Gentamicin, Ceftriaxone, Doxycycline and Ciprofloxacin were most effective. Conclusion: Our study reveals that mobile phones may contaminate by different pathogenic bacteria which can cause nosocomial infection. It is needed to minimize the risk of mobile phones as vectors for pathogen transmission.

Keywords:

Hand of health worker, mobile, nosocomial infection,

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