Australian hospital workers' mobile phones carry deadly superbugs — study reveals

DNA samples from 95 mobile phones of Australian and United Arab Emirates hospital workers found, on average, 3.62 out of 10 species of bacteria associated with the highest global mortality rates.

In Europe alone, hospital-acquired infections account for more than 25 million additional hospital bed days each year, costing between 13 and 24 billion euros. This study, using a technique called metagenomics, involved an international team of scientists scanning the raw DNA on the phones, with samples primarily collected from EDs and paediatric wards, including some from neonatal and paediatric intensive care units.

Bacterial species responsible for a significant proportion of the 13.7 million deaths caused by bacterial infections in 2019 alone were identified, with Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli among what they found — all designated priority pathogens by the World Health Organization.

The technique used identified not only the bacteria themselves but also the genes they carry that can shield them from drugs — the researchers suggesting that phones also harbour the genetic ‘toolkit’ bacteria use to share and acquire antibiotic resistance traits. What this means, these researchers suggest, is that these devices may act as reservoirs for hard-to-treat infections.

Regarding the complex communities of bacteria and disease-causing genes found on mobile phones, ‘phonome’ was the term used by the research team to describe the microbial ecosystem observed; the study’s findings — while not examining direct transmission of infection — pointing to, the researchers said, a potential cross-contamination pathway that is currently under-recognised in clinical settings.

“Hospitals place a strong emphasis on hand hygiene, but mobile phones are often overlooked despite being handled constantly in clinical settings,” said one of the study’s authors, Dr Lotti Tajouri of Bond University. “These devices move between wards, patient areas and personal spaces, yet they are rarely disinfected as part of routine infection-control practices.”

That mobile phones are rarely included in routine hospital disinfection protocols is described by the researchers as a blind spot in infection control that may undermine strict hand hygiene practices; with Tajouri suggesting that simple measures such as regular phone disinfection protocols could become an additional tool in reducing the spread of hospital-acquired infections.

The study was published open access in MicrobiologyOpen and you can read it at doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.70321.

Image credit: iStock.com/Pressmaster