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Cell Phones May Spread Infections

Posted by michael on from the don't-know-where-that-phone-has-been dept.

CHaN_316 writes "Yahoo is running an article talking about how cell phones from health workers are helping spread dangerous infections in hospitals. 'They found that 12 percent of healthcare providers' cell phones were contaminated with [Acinetobacter baumannii]. The results are disturbing because [it] has the propensity to develop resistance to almost all available antibiotics ... Cell phones provide a large dry surface that allows survival of A. baumannii--it requires no nutrients ... [it] is found in intensive care units, and the mortality rate among infected patients is very high -- between 50 and 60 percent.' The hospital that conducted this research no longer allows the use of cell phones, and are switching to devices that don't require hand contact like pagers." So how long before someone develops a cell phone that can be dunked in alcohol or run through the autoclave to sterilize it?

4 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. ericson phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I own an ericson R310 Waterproof shockproof phone (antenae that looks like a sharks fin). I noticed that during the recent sars outbreak they seemed to be the phone of choice for the men in bunny suits!

  2. How about irradiation? by Progman3K · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wouldn't simply irradiating the cel phone do the trick?

    Maybe some internal parts would need to be shielded to withstand it, but the external surface could be sterilized that way.

    --
    I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
  3. And what about Medical PDAs??? by G4from128k · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If cell phones harbor nasty germs, what about those PDA and Tablet PC medical terminals? The construction is equivalent -- lots of plastic, elastomeric buttons, touch screens, stylus, etc. Worse, medical terminals are more likely than are cell phones to be handled by multiple people.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
  4. Sterile cell phones by DdJ · · Score: 5, Interesting
    So how long before someone develops a cell phone that can be dunked in alcohol or run through the autoclave to sterilize it?
    Not necessary. Get a bluetooth cell phone, and seal it in a sterile plastic bag while at work. Then develop a bluetooth headset that can be sterilized. You can push the buttons on the phone through the plastic bag.

    Heck, come to think of it, the plastic bag would let sound through without a problem. Just get a cell phone that you don't need to fold or unfold to use, and heat-seal it in a fresh sterile plastic bag every time you enter the hospital, and remove the plastic bag every time you leave. That would do the trick, wouldn't it?