Cell phones, ECG leads are nosocomial pathways: hospitalized patients.(Clinical Rounds)

CHICAGO -- Cell phones and reusable ECG leads have come under scrutiny as reservoirs for multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens that may potentially play an important role in serious nosocomial infections in hospitalized patients.

New evidence that the use of cell phones by hospital personnel provides a plausible route of nosocomial disease transmission has prompted a prohibition against staff cell phone use during patient care at one major Israeli university hospital, Dr. Abraham Borer said at the annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Dr. Borer presented a study in which the hands and personal cell phones of 71 physicians and 53 nurses at Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel, were cultured for Acinetobacter baumannii. He and his coinvestigators focused on this microorganism because it is "among the most fearsome" pathogens involved in nosocomial bacterial infections in hospitalized patients. A. baumannii has a propensity to develop resistance to a wide range of antimicrobials, and the microorganism can survive on fomites for long periods, he explained.

A. baumannii was found on 24% of tested hands and 12% of cell phones. Overall, 10% of the A. baumannii isolates were multidrug resistant."

Rates of contaminated cell phones were highest among hospital staff working on internal medicine wards. In contrast, positive hand cultures were detected most frequently among personnel working on pediatric wards.

Dr. Borer is organizing a study in which genetic profiling of resistant bacteria obtained from staff members' hands and cells phones will be used to pin down the actual rate of staff-to-patient transmission--and precisely what role cells phones play in the chain of transmission.

In a separate presentation, ...