Prevalence of bacterial isolates from cell phone surfaces in Madonna University Elele Campus

Cell phones is a major revolution in the communication industry. In recent times, cell phone is carried by almost everybody, however, in some areas where not everyone has a cell phone, people patronize paid phone booths to communicate with loved ones. Madonna University, Elele Campus, is in Rivers State Nigeria and accommodates the University where all the students and staff are living on campus, The Madonna University Teaching Hospital, the pilgrimage center where pilgrims from all over the world visit regularly. There are phone booths at strategic locations where individuals pay and use their phone. Since different people use the same phone with their hands and mouth to make calls, this research was aimed at accessing the prevalence of bacteria isolates from cell phone surfaces in Madonna University, Elele campus, and the susceptibility of these organisms to commonly used antibiotics. Fifty swab samples were collected from the surface of cell phones at various locations in Madonna University, Elele Campus, and were microbiologically analyzed for the aerobic bacteria count and susceptibility to different antibiotics using the pour-plate method. Madonna University Teaching Hospital phone booth recorded the highest total aerobic bacterial count and number of bacteria isolates compared to other centers. Staphylococcus species was significantly (p<0.05) the most prevalent bacteria species isolated on the cell phones, and the percentage occurrence of various isolates were: Staphylococcus species (59.5%), Salmonella species (19.1%), Streptococcus specie (9.5%) Psuedomonas species (3.1%) and Escherichia coli (2.1%). Among the gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli had 100% susceptibility against all the antibiotics, Salmonella species recorded 100% susceptibility against ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, gentamycin, chloramphenicol and ampicillin while Proteus species had 100% against streptomycin and chloramphenicol. For the gram-positive, Streptococcus species and Staphylococcus species recorded a significant percentage of susceptibility ranging from 62.5% to 100% against some of the antibiotics used. This study conclude that cell phone surfaces could be a reservoir for different disease causing micro-organism and users should take precaution against bacterial infection while using cell phone.