Contamination of medical students' cellphones with drug-resistant bacteria is not uncommon, according to new research presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology ending June 24 in San Francisco.
Researchers from Brazil collected samples from 100 cellphones belonging to medical university students.
They found Staphylococcus aureus in 40 percent of the total samples, of which 70 percent belonged to students in the nursing course. The staph isolates were 85 percent resistant to penicillin.
The presence of Escherichia coli was not observed in any of the samples.
"More research is needed to provide evidence that improved cellphone hygiene will lead to a reduction in infections associated with healthcare," study authors concluded.