Bacterial contamination of public telephones in the downtown area of Sarajevo

Public telephones are handled by many people and can serve as vehicle of disease transmission. Our study involved the microbiological analysis of public telephones. We analysed 60 telephones from the downtown area of Sarajevo and they were all positive for bacterial contamination. The analysis used microbiological, biochemical and serological methods. More Gram-positive than Gram-negative bacteria were isolated, and the most common bacteria were Staphylococcus epidermidis. Beside this, we also found pathogenic and opportunistic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The hygiene of the environmental surfaces and public objects is to be considered as various opportunistic bacterial pathogens were isolated.