Introduction: Enterococcus species are normal commensals of the GIT, oropharynx, female genital tract and skin with E.faecalis and E.faecium being most common. They cause nosocomial bacteremia, endocarditis and UTI. The fatality rate of E.faecalis is 22.8% and of E.faecium is around 25-50%.[3] E .faecium is highly resistant to Vancomycin. There is a risk of transmission of nosocomial infections, due to the increased virulence of E. faecium and its prevalence in mobiles of dental practioners. Mobiles are ubiquitous in a dental set up and have been shown to be contaminated with pathogenic organisms thus contributing to the transmission of infection from patient to dentist and vice versa.
Aims & Objectives: To evaluate the presence/absence of E. faecium in smears of mobiles of dental practioners.
Materials &Methods: A sterile cotton swab dipped in sterile normal saline was rolled over the exposed surfaces of mobiles of 30 dentists. Swabs were dropped into BHI broth and incubated for 2 hours. 100 microlitres of broth were utilized to grow the species on HiChrom Agar, incubated aerobically at 37°C for 2 days. All the green colored colonies were counted using direct plate counting representing E. faecium.
Result: E. faecium were prevalent in 96.67% of the samples (29/30). The mean CFU’s was 22.2± 4.02 (Mean ±S.E.).
Conclusion: The present study is first of its kind which showed definite prevalence of E. faecium in mobiles of dentists. There could be a possibility that biofilm in other dental equipments maybe colonized by E. faecium and since these life-threatening species may potentially infect either the dentist or the patients, further cross-sectional studies with larger samples may be required to establish the same.
Impact Factor
2022: 6.012
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