Mobile phones are a window to the germs that live in your body

Your mobile device can tell more about your health than just how many steps you take each day. Researchers at the University of Oregon in the US have found that mobile phones’ touchscreens have the same microorganisms that live in our body, providing a glimpse of our personal microbiome—the ‘good’ bacteria, viruses and fungi we carry around in our body from the day we are born.

The researchers collected samples from the thumbs, index fingers and mobile phone screens of 17 volunteers, and found that 82 percent of all microbe types on the participants’ fingers were also found on their phones. The three common microbes in all samples was streptococcus, a bacteria that’s found in the mouth, and the inoffensive skin residents staphylococcus and corynebacterium.

Because our mobile phones carry the same germs we do, they could be used as a non-invasive diagnostic tool that can tell doctors if a patient has been exposed to a potentially dangerous microorganism.

“Taking samples from actual people requires consent, and some people may find it uncomfortable, but swabbing mobile phones could be a less-invasive way to get samples,” said ecology and environmental scientist James F. Meadow, lead author of the study, over at LiveScience. "This may be a way to make research into the microbiome easier in the future.”

Although the sample was small, these results are consistent with other studies that have reported that the same bacteria present on mobile phones are found on the hands and other body parts of their users.

“Our human microbiome travels with us everywhere we go. We constantly transfer microbes to and from the surfaces around us, and that includes our possessions,” wrote the researchers in the paper published in the journal PeerJ. “We also increasingly carry our phones with us everywhere we go, and this study confirms that we share more than an emotional connection with our phones — they carry our personal microbiome”.

With thanks to:

Feature Scoop Online 

http://www.featurescoop.in/entries/health/mobile-phones-are-a-window-to-the-germs-that-live-in-your-body

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