Medical Xpress September 30, 2024
Knowledge and ideas circulate freely at international conferences but so do germs carried from abroad on mobile phones, a new study shows.
Lead author Dr. Lotti Tajouri of Bond University says the data builds a case that international travelers’ phones should be decontaminated at ports of entry to protect native plants and animals, agriculture and public health.
For the study, published in Infection, Disease & Health, researchers swabbed 20 phones belonging to attendees at a world conference for doctors in Sydney in 2023.
The samples underwent DNA analysis that revealed 2,204 microbes on the devices, including 882 bacteria, 1,229 viruses, 88 fungi, and five single-celled protists.
Among the microbes present on the surface of the mobile phones were antibiotic-resistant bacteria...
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