Doctors’ phones teeming with dangerous organisms: Australian study
They should be considered a 'third hand' and subject to WHO hand hygiene guidance, RACGP Professor Mark Morgan and his co-authors say
Doctors’ mobile phones pose a serious risk to public health, Australian researchers have warned, after their study found their devices are teeming with viruses, bacteria and fungi.
For the study the Bond University-led researchers swabbed the phones of 26 healthcare workers, including eight doctors, from the paediatric ICU and paediatric department of the Gold Coast University Hospital.
DNA was then extracted from the swabs for genetic sequencing and used to identify any organisms on the devices.
This revealed the phones, which were mostly for personal use, collectively housed over 11,000 organisms, including 5700 bacteria, 675 fungi and more than 200 viruses.
