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

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 contaminati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ahmed Olowo-okere * , Habeebah Olufe Owolabi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hammer Head Production Limited 2022-02-01
Series:Sokoto Journal of Medical Laboratory Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://sokjmls.com.ng/index.php/SJMLS/article/view/73
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:2536-7153