Introduction: Nosocomial infections (NIs) are one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). The incidence of infections varies widely among NICUs (7-25.5%), and (18-30%) among PICUs depending on environmental factors and differences in clinical practice (Brito et al., 2010).
Objective: To investigate the prevalence of bacterial contamination of mobile phones of HCWs in pediatric departments (ward, NICU and PICU) of Zagazig University Hospital and Al-Mabarrah General Hospital. To characterize a baseline of data on types of bacterial isolates and their antibiotic sensitivity patterns.
Methods: The study was conducted at Zagazig university hospital NICU and PICU and Al Mabarra hospital NICU in the period from April 2018 to october 2018. This prospective cross sectional study was approved by The Research Committee of Faculty of Medicine. The study was conducted according to the guidelines of Helsiniki Decloration (world medical association 2013)
Results: This cross-sectional study included 350 HCWs , of whom 38 HCWs were from El-Mabara hospital , while the rest from Zagazig university hospital the HCWs were between 21 and 56 years with a median age of 31 years and the number of females was 274 ; 78.3%
Conclusion: Use mobile phones by HCWs during the work in the NICUs and PICUs carry ahigh risk for the NIs. Bacterial contamination of the mobile phones of the HCWs. Regular cleaning of the phones decrease the contamination rate.