Microorganisms isolated from mobile phones and hands of health-care workers in a tertiary care hospital of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

The mobile phones have become an inevitable part of life for communication everywhere. Hospital-acquired infections are causing increased morbidity and mortality of hospitalized patients. After getting approval from the institutional review board, a total of 300 samples from mobile phones and dominant hands of resident doctors, nurses, and support staff working in neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit, intensive care unit, and emergency ward were tested according to standard guidelines for culture. Of 300 samples tested, 144 (96%) mobile phones and 145 (96.66%) dominant hands showed contamination with one or more types of microorganisms. Monomicrobial organisms were recovered from 247 samples and polymicrobial organisms were isolated from 42 samples. Mobile phones and hands of helath care workers serve as a potential reservoir for hospital acquired infections as multi-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria as well as normal flora of skin were recovered.

Identification of prevalent dengue serotypes by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and correlation with severity of dengue as per the recent World Health Organization classification (2009)

Context: A definite link between distinct dengue serotypes and severe clinical manifestations has not been established yet. The WHO classification (2009) of dengue is more competent in diagnosing severe cases compared to traditional (1997) classification. Aims: This study aimed to identify prevalent dengue serotypes and to correlate the severity of dengue with the dengue virus (DENV) serotypes in target population as per the recent WHO classification (2009). Settings and Design: A retrospective comparative observational study was conducted from 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2015. Subjects and Methods: We tested 242 dengue NS-1 antigen ELISA-positive cases for serotyping by dengue reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Severity of each dengue case confirmed by RT-PCR was determined as per the recent WHO classification (2009). Results: On the basis of RT-PCR, dengue infection was confirmed in 135 (55.78%) patients. DEN-3 was the most common serotype found in 71 (52.6%) patients, followed by DEN-2 serotype with 44 (32.6%) patients. Nearly 2.22% cases of DEN-2 and 2.96% cases of DEN-3 serotype were having dengue with warning signs. Severe dengue was found in 2.22% cases of DEN-2 and 5.18% cases of DEN-3 serotypes. Thrombocytopenia, haemorrhagic manifestations and atypical presentations were found most commonly in DEN-3 followed by DEN-2 serotype. Coinfection with more than one serotype was observed in our study, with the most common coinfection pattern being DEN-2 and DEN-3 serotypes. Conclusions: DENV-3 and DENV-2 serotypes are prevalent in the region and are associated with a more serious clinical profile than other serotypes.