Research Article
Antibiotic Susceptibility Patterns of ESβL Producers Isolated from
the Mobile Phones
Manjula NG ,
1
Shilpa Borehalli Mayegowda,
1
L. Priyanka,
1
D. Priyanka,
1
Saad Alghamdi ,
2
Shalini Choudary,
1
V. Sanchita,
1
G. Chishmitha,
1
Banan Atwah,
2
Zain Alhindi,
2
and Fahadul Islam
3
1
School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Dayananda Sagar University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
2
Laboratory Medicine Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
3
Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Daffodil International University, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh
Correspondence should be addressed to Manjula NG; manjulang-sbas@dsu.edu.in and Fahadul Islam; fahadul29-774@diu.edu.bd
Received 1 April 2022; Accepted 13 May 2022; Published 27 May 2022
Academic Editor: Vijaya Anand
Copyright © 2022 Manjula NG et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Mobile phones have become an indispensable part of human lives for communication, education, and entertainment activities. is
study aims to evaluate the diversity pattern of bacterial contaminants on mobiles and to check antibiotic resistance profiles in 105
samples. e study revealed a contamination of 51% in men and 49% in women, the highest in the 21- to 30-year age group, evidencing
the extreme use of mobiles by teenagers. e study observed Gram-negative bacteria (63%) versus Gram-positive bacteria (37%).
Overall, Gram-negative bacterial isolates showed the highest sensitivity to antibiotic nitrofurantoin (90%) and the lowest in ampicillin
(35%). Gram positive has highest incidence of sensitivity towards tigecycline (100%) and lowest in cefoxitin (20%). ESβL producers were
found to be 21.0% and highest being in Klebsiella oxytoca (35%) followed by Klebsiella pneumonia (31%). Staphylococcus pseu-
dintermedius and Staphylococcus capitis have been identified on the mobile phones for the very first time. Interestingly, some soil
microbes were also isolated and unfortunately found to have some antibiotic resistance like Raoultella ornithinolytica and Sphingomonas
paucimobilis. e results revealed that mobiles were contaminated with multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, and this study also
showed that few of the saprophytic soil strains have antibiotic resistance, which can be an alarming situation that needs to be addressed.
1. Introduction
e mobile phone or smartphone have many attributes and
characteristics that make it very attractive to both the young
and the old. With the achievements in the field of technology,
mobile phone, a portable electronic device for personal
communication, has become an important part of one’s life,
and its benefits have made it user friendly. However, the
disadvantage of overlooking the health hazard has been a
concern because many users do not take care of personal
hygiene while using these phones. e extensive usage of
mobile devices, such as the touch screen, renders the highest
possible transmission fomites of several pathogens across
various age groups. Furthermore, different users handle them
constantly exposing and acts as a good carrier to an array of
microorganisms [1,2]. ese mobile phones come in contact
with many surfaces that are having germs during our daily
activities. ese germs gradually start to accumulate on our
mobile phones over a period of time. It has been observed that
with the constant handling of the mobile generates heat that
acts a primary source for the growth of microbes that are
normally found on the skin. us, sanitising the phone and
hands play an important role in our health system. Disease
causing bacteria are thus able to get transferred from person to
person through the direct contact and fomites [3].
In the current situation, there has been an incessant use
and handling of mobile phones, and these devices have also
been exposed to a variety of different pathogenic bacteria [4].
ese pathogens can survive on environmental surfaces,
including mobiles and thus may perhaps act as a potential
infectious source for humans. Mobiles tend to act as fomites
for pathogenic microbes that are transmitted such as
Hindawi
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume 2022, Article ID 1527488, 8 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1527488