Mobile phones and computer keyboards: unlikely reservoirs of multidrug-resistant organisms in the tertiary intensive care unit

Publication date: Available online 2 March 2018 Source:Journal of Hospital Infection Author(s): O. Smibert, A.K. Aung, E. Woolnough, G.P. Carter, M.B. Schultz, B.P. Howden, T. Seemann, D. Spelman, S. McGloughlin, A.Y. Peleg Few studies have utilized molecular epidemiological methods to study transmission links to clinical isolates in intensive care units. 94 multi-drug resistant organisms (MDRO) cultured from routine specimens from ICU patients over 13 weeks were stored (11 MRSA, 2 VRE and 81 Gram-negative bacteria). Medical staff personal mobile phones, departmental phones and ICU keyboards were swabbed and cultured for MDRO; MRSA was isolated from two phones. Environmental and patient isolates of the same genus were selected for whole genome sequencing. On WGS, the mobile phone isolates had a pairwise SNP distance of 183. However, >15,000 core genome SNPs separated the mobile phone and clinical isolates. In a low endemic setting, mobile phones and keyboards appear unlikely to contribute to hospital-acquired MDRO.
Source: Journal of Hospital Infection - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: research