2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Surface bacterial contamination of mobile phones leading to contamination of the hands of nurse
| Project/Area Number |
22590607
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Public health/Health science
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| Research Institution | Tokai University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KOBAYASHI Intetsu 東邦大学, 看護学部, 教授 (10533028)
KANAYAMA Akiko 東邦大学, 看護学部, 助教 (90536195)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2010-04-01 – 2014-03-31
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| Keywords | 医療用携帯電話 / 病院感染 / MRSA / 手指衛生 |
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| Research Abstract |
222 hospital-use only mobile phones used by the nursing staff at a university hospital and hands of the users were sampled for bacterial contamination. Of the 222 mobile phones sampled, 16 (7.2%) were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, of which, 5 (2.3%) were MRSA. Of the 221 nurses hands sampled, S. aureus was isolated from 55 (24.9%) nurses, of which, 12 (5.4%) nurses were positive for MRSA. Both the mobile phone and hand of their user were concurrently S. aureus positive in 11 (5%) of 221 mobile phone/user samplings. We conclude that mobile phones can be contaminated from the hands of nurses during use. Hands can become re-contaminated after hand-washing and lead to cross-transmission during care of patients. There is a need to address this potential threat to infection control and implement steps to minimize cross-infection through mobile phones.
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