ArticleFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology2022
Metagenomic Sequencing and Reverse Transcriptase PCR Reveal That Mobile Phones and Environmental Surfaces Are Reservoirs of Multidrug-Resistant Superbugs and SARS-CoV-2.
Article in Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Hospital-Associated Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria on 95 Mobile Phones: An International Metagenomic "Phonome" Analysis.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Article
- Occurrence of Human Viruses on Fomites in the Environment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.ACS environmental Au · 2023Review
- Ultraviolet-C-Based Mobile Phone Sanitisation for Global Public Health and Infection Control.Microorganisms · 2023Article
- Contamination by Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria on Cell Phones of Vendors in a Peruvian Market.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- Mobile phones are hazardous microbial platforms warranting robust public health and biosecurity protocols.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Healthcare Derived Smart Watches and Mobile Phones are Contaminated Niches to Multidrug Resistant and Highly Virulent Microbes.Infection and drug resistance · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Mobile phones of healthcare workers (HCWs) can act as fomites in the dissemination of microbes. This study was carried out to investigate microbial contamination of mobile phones of HCWs and environmental samples from the hospital unit using a combination of phenotypic and molecular methods. Methods: This point prevalence survey was carried out at the Emergency unit of a tertiary care facility. The emergency unit has two zones, a general zone for non-COVID-19 patients and a dedicated COVID-19 zone for confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients. Swabs were obtained from the mobile phones of HCWs in both zones for bacterial culture and shotgun metagenomic analysis. Metagenomic sequencing of pooled environmental swabs was conducted. RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 detection was carried out. Results: Bacteria contamination on culture was detected from 33 (94.2%) mobile phones with a preponderance of Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that mobile phones of HCWs are fomites for potentially pathogenic and highly drug-resistant microbes. The presence of these microbes on the mobile phones and hospital environmental surfaces is a concern as it poses a risk of pathogen transfer to patients and dissemination into the community.
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