Mobile phone and its associated contamination that predispose bacterial infection in Southwest Nigeria

Background: Mobile phone are portable handset telecommunication device that is available for the use of young, adult and old individuals as means of communication. Attention is often attributed to hospital care givers as major infected subjects but not generally so because great number of people are involved outside teaching hospital /clinical settings. This form the basis of the study to know the extent amongst the university community.
Method: A cross sectional study was conducted from April 2019 to June 2019 on 140 subjects of student and staff of the Federal university of Technology Akure aged 15 to 50 years. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Swab sample of each individual subject of student and staff of the university were taken and transported to the laboratory. These were processed, identified, following the standard microbiology techniques.
Result: Indication revealed that the mobile phone of the subjects were contaminated with bacterial pathogen which are Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus species and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The percentage of overall contamination is 65 (46.4%).
Conclusion: It is established from the analysis conducted that the mobile phone of students and staff of the university was contaminated with bacterial infection therefore, steps should be taken to minimize the rate of the infection simply by hand washing and being conscious of clean and hygienic environment.