Shining a light on the pathogenicity of health care providers' mobile phones: Use of a novel ultraviolet-C wave disinfection device

•Novel UV-C device found to significantly decrease total and pathogenic bacteria on mobile phones.•UV-C phone disinfecting device is renewable, efficient and effective..•UV-C device implementation in a hospital system would be desired by healthcare providers.•Healthcare providers felt their mobile p...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	American journal of infection control Vol. 48; no. 11; pp. 1370 - 1374
Main Authors:	Malhotra, Sanchi, Wlodarczyk, Jordan, Kuo, Christopher, Ngo, Catherine, Glucoft, Marisa, Sumulong, Ivan, Smit, Michael A., Bender, Jeffrey M.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Elsevier Inc 01-11-2020 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc
Subjects:	Bacteria - pathogenicity Bacteria - radiation effects Betacoronavirus - pathogenicity Betacoronavirus - radiation effects Cell Phone Colony Count, Microbial Coronavirus Infections - prevention & control Coronavirus Infections - virology COVID-19 Cross Infection - microbiology Cross Infection - prevention & control Disease Transmission, Infectious - prevention & control Disinfection Disinfection - instrumentation Disinfection - methods Healthcare associated infections Hospitals Humans Infection control Major Pandemics - prevention & control Pneumonia, Viral - prevention & control Pneumonia, Viral - virology SARS-CoV-2 Ultraviolet Rays UV-C device Virulence Disinfection UV-C device Healthcare associated infections Infection control
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	•Novel UV-C device found to significantly decrease total and pathogenic bacteria on mobile phones.•UV-C phone disinfecting device is renewable, efficient and effective..•UV-C device implementation in a hospital system would be desired by healthcare providers.•Healthcare providers felt their mobile phones were an important risk factor in infection transmission and that they would use this device daily to weekly.•UV-C technology is shown to kill coronaviruses and implementation of this device could be impactful during pandemic. Mobile phones are known to carry pathogenic bacteria and viruses on their surfaces, posing a risk to healthcare providers (HCPs) and hospital infection prevention efforts. We utilize an Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) device to provide an effective method for mobile phone disinfection and survey HCPs about infection risk. Environmental swabs were used to culture HCPs’ personal mobile phone surfaces. Four cultures were obtained per phone: before and after the UV-C device's 30-second disinfecting cycle, at the beginning and end of a 12-hour shift. Surveys were administered to participants pre- and poststudy. Total bacterial colony forming units were reduced by 90.5% (P = .006) after one UV-C disinfection cycle, and by 99.9% (P = .004) after 2 cycles. Total pathogenic bacterial colony forming units were decreased by 98.2% (P = .038) after one and >99.99% (P = .037) after 2 disinfection cycles. All survey respondents were willing to use the UV-C device daily to weekly, finding it convenient and beneficial. This novel UV-C disinfecting device is effective in reducing pathogenic bacteria on mobile phones. HCPs would frequently use a phone disinfecting device to reduce infection risk. In light of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a standardized approach to phone disinfection may be valuable in preventing healthcare-associated infections.
ISSN:	0196-6553 1527-3296
DOI:	10.1016/j.ajic.2020.05.040