METHODS
During the period from December 2014-January 2015, 96 mobile phones of
healthcare providers in IMICU, anesthesia intensive care unit (AICU) and
operating room of our hospital were sampled for bacterial contamination.
On the other hand, during the same period we investigated nasal S.
aureus colonization of same healthcare providers. The samples were
screened for bacterial pathogens by standart bacteriological procedures.
The methicillin sensitivity of the identified S. aureus isolates
were tested. Eight methicillin-sensitive S.aureus (MSSA) strains
isolated from the noses of the healthcare providers and five MSSAstrains isolated from their mobile phones were included in this study.
The section from which the strains were isolated, occupational group and
sample distribution are presented in
Table I.
The clonal relationship between the strains and molecular
epidemiological status were investigated by the pulsed-field gel
electrophoresis (PFGE) method. The bacterial DNA was obtained from each
strain by the acromopeptidase method. The DNA macrorestriction analysis
was performed according to the protocol prepared by the Scottish MRSA
Reference Laboratory with the Sma I restriction method suggested
by Bannerman et al. 5 The Chef DR III (Biorad) device
was used for PFGE, and EMRSA 2 and EMRSA 6 strains were included in the
study with the aim of making a comparison. After electrophoresis, the
gel was stained with ethidium bromide (0.5 µg/ml), and DNA bands were
observed. The clonal relationship between the strains was evaluated
according to the criteria described by Tenover et al. from the DNA band
patterns formed in the gel after PFGE6.