High level bacterial contamination of secondary school students' mobile phones.

INTRODUCTION

While contamination of mobile phones in the hospital has been found to be common in several studies, little information about bacterial abundance on phones used in the community is available. Our aim was to quantitatively determine the bacterial contamination of secondary school students' mobile phones.

METHODS

Altogether 27 mobile phones were studied. The contact plate method and microbial identification using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer were used for culture studies. Quantitative PCR reaction for detection of universal 16S rRNA, 16S rRNA and allantoin permease were performed, and the presence of tetracycline (A, B, M), erythromycin (B) and sulphonamide (1) resistance genes was assessed.

RESULTS

We found a high median bacterial count on secondary school students' mobile phones (10.5 CFU/cm) and a median of 17,032 bacterial 16S rRNA gene copies per phone. Potentially pathogenic microbes (, spp. spp., and ) were found among dominant microbes more often on phones with higher percentage of in total bacterial 16S rRNA. No differences in contamination level or dominating bacterial species between phone owner's gender and between phone types (touch screen/keypad) were found. No antibiotic resistance genes were detected on mobile phone surfaces.

CONCLUSION

Quantitative study methods revealed high level bacterial contamination of secondary school students' mobile phones.