Detecção de S. aureus resistentes a antibióticos em smartphones

Abstract

Smartphones are present in the daily lives of most people, both for personal and professional use. Intense handling, combined with a lack of cleaning of the equipment and hands, causes an accumulation of microorganisms on the device from the individual’s microbiota and the environment. These microorganisms can be pathogenic and put people at risk, especially if the bacteria present are resistant to antibiotics. Resistance is one of the current major public health concerns, as the increasing number of resistant strains jeopardizes current medical treatments for infections. To investigate the presence of the pathogenic bacterium S. aureus on smartphones, volunteers from the university community of UTFPR, Santa Helena, were recruited. The devices were subjected to microbial collection and seeding on selective media for Staphylococcus. This was followed by isolation and identification using specific chromogenic culture media and presumptive tests. The S. aureus isolates were evaluated for their antimicrobial sensitivity profile using the disk- diffusion technique. Most of the smartphones were contaminated with bacteria, some in large quantities. About 25% of the Staphylococcus sp. isolates were S. aureus. Of these, pproximately 83% were resistant to at least one antibiotic. One methicillin-resistant isolate (MRSA) was detected, and about 25% of the isolates showed a multidrug-resistant (MDR) profile, meaning they were resistant to three different classes of antimicrobials. This study highlighted the importance of hand and smartphone hygiene, as they are constantly handled and can serve as a source of infection by resistant pathogens