Abstract
Mobile phone has become an important instrument of everyday life. Nevertheless, the widespread use of mobile phones for healthcare workers, it can be a vehicle for transmitting pathogenic bacteria. This study aimed to investigate the bacterial contamination of healthcare workers mobile phones in Tripoli, Libya. This cross-sectional study, from June to September 2022, involved 120 healthcare workers. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather sociodemographic and phone usage data. The mobile phones of healthcare workers were swabbed for culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The included healthcare workers; were nurses, clinicians, laboratory personnels, and pharmacists, from different part in hospital; medical wards, surgical wards, maternity ward, intensive care units, laboratory, and pharmacy. 58% of the participants never disinfected their phone, 40% disinfected their mobile phone occasionally, and only 2% always disinfected their phone. The overall prevalence of mobile phone contamination was 65%. The predominant isolates were coagulase-negative staphylococci, Klebsiella species, Burkholderia cepacia, and Pseudomonas species. Most isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin-clavulanic and ciprofloxacin antibiotics, while resistant to ampicillin was detected in all isolated bacteria. In conclusion, mobile phones of healthcare workers carry potentially pathogenic bacteria and can be a source of healthcare associated infections in healthcare settings. Hence, regulations regarding the use of mobile phones need to be developed, especially in critical areas, to reduce the dissemination of pathogenic bacteria from hands to phones and, potentially, to patients. Keywords: Mobile Phone, Bacterial Contamination, Healthcare Worker, Tripoli, Libya.