Comparison of Antibiotic Susceptibility of Bacterial Communities on Cell Phones Belonging to Health Care Workers and Non-Health Care Workers

Date

2016

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

College of Natural and Health Sciences, The University of Tampa

Abstract

The frequent use of cell phones inside of health care facilities produces a risk of contamination of the phones with potentially pathogenic bacteria. The elevated use of antibiotics within these health care facilities may also contribute to heightened levels of antibiotic resistant strains on these devices. To assess this, bacterial samples were collected from health care workers’ and non-health care workers’ cell phones. The bacterial isolates were assessed for antibiotic resistance via the Kirby-Bauer method. Eleven out of nineteen of the bacterial isolates from the health care workers cell phones displayed resistance to at least one antibiotic. According to our study, the lower amount of resistance of the bacteria isolated from the health care worker samples compared to the non-health care worker samples leads us to conclude that there is not a higher prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria on health care workers’ phones.

Description

Recommended Citation: Guillemette , Matt , and Zachary Rivera. “Comparison of Antibiotic Susceptibility of Bacterial Communities on Cell Phones Belonging to Health Care Workers and Non-Health Care Workers.” Acta Spartae, 2016. https://doi.org/10.48497/02RR-PP45.

Keywords

Cell phones, Health care workers, Bacteria, Antibiotics, Department of Biology, Research Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES, Research Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::Biology

Citation

Guillemette , Matt , and Zachary Rivera. “Comparison of Antibiotic Susceptibility of Bacterial Communities on Cell Phones Belonging to Health Care Workers and Non-Health Care Workers.” Acta Spartae, 2016. https://doi.org/10.48497/02RR-PP45.