Mobile Phones of Health Professions Students are reservoir of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

The contamination of mobile phones with antibiotic resistant bacteria is well
documented. However, there is limited data on the rate of methicillin resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) contamination of mobile phones in Sokoto, Nigeria.
The aim of this study was to determine the rate of contamination of mobile phones of
health profession students of Usmanu Danfodiyo University with MRSA. A
questionnaire was administered to collect demographic data and the health history of the
recruited participants. Sterile swabs pre-moistened with sterile physiological saline were
used to swab the surface of mobile phones of the participants. The collected samples
were processed using standard microbiological techniques. The detection of MRSA was
done using the oxacillin resistance screening agar base test (ORSAB). The susceptibility
of the MRSA isolates to commonly prescribed antibiotics was carried out using the disc
diffusion method. A total of 200 participants were recruited from medical and allied
faculties. The participants comprise 142 clinical students and 58 pre-clinical students.
The majority of the participants were males 121 (60.5 %). The mobile phones of 85
(42.5 %) of the study participant were contaminated with MRSA. The carrier rate was
higher among the male (64.7%) and participants aged between 20-24 years (82.4%).
The contamination was predominant among the clinical students (71.8%%). The
isolates were resistant to most commonly used antibiotics. There is a high level of
contamination of mobile phones of medical students of Usmanu Danfodiyo University
Sokoto with MRSA. The finding of this study underscores the importance of hygiene
practices in cell phone usage.