Antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial isolates from the conjunctiva, storage cases and mobile phones of university students using contact lenses.

PURPOSE: To investigate the presence of bacterial pathogens on the palpebral conjunctiva, mobile phones, and storage cases of contact lens wearers to study any possible correlation between types of bacteria isolated from the 3 sites and to determine their antibiotic profiles.

METHODS

One hundred and eighty nine swabs from the conjunctiva, mobile phones, and storage cases were collected from 63 contact lens wearing university students. The swabs were collected and transported to the microbiology laboratory within one hour and inoculated on nutrient agar, MacConkey agar, blood agar and mannitol salt agar. The subsequent bacterial isolates were identified by their cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristics.

RESULTS

Nine bacterial species were isolated and identified in the current study namely: Staphylococcus. aureus, Streptococcus. pyogenes, Enterococcus. faecalis, Shigella dysentery, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis, Citrobacter spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. Nine (26%) mobile phone and 7 (21%) conjunctival samples were contaminated with five different bacterial species. The highest level of contamination was detected in contact lens storage cases where 18 (52%) bacterial isolates were detected in cases.

CONCLUSIONS

The storage cases and mobile phones of contact lens wearing university students were highly contaminated with pathogenic bacteria and may act as a carrier for the transmission of such bacteria to the eye causing eye infections which can be controlled by proper hygiene and using effective disinfectant for storage cases. Pathogenic bacteria were detected with multiple antibiotic resistance indices.