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Microorganisms are ubiquitous, they are found everywhere. Mobile phones are not an exception. Mobile phones, also referred to as palmtops act as fomites, a source of infection because the palms used to handle mobile phones are often times in contact with surfaces which may have been pre-infected; nevertheless, their potential role in transmission of infections is of great concern. A cross-sectional study (male and female) was done from June to August 2018 at Caritas University, Amorji-Nike, Enugu State, in order to investigate the prevalence of bacterial contamination of mobile phones of students. Swab samples were collected from 50 mobile phones of Caritas University students. These were tested for bacterial contamination in the Microbiology laboratory. Quantification of bacteria was performed using standard streak plate technique. Isolated bacteria were identified using standard microbiological methods which include: cultural and morphological characterization and biochemical test. Antimicrobial susceptibility was also done. The microorganism isolated from students’ mobile phones and their percentage frequency of occurrence were: E. coli (31.9%), S. aureus (40.4%), P. aeruginosa (8.5%), K. pneumonia (4.3%) and Streptococcus sp. (14.9%). The result showed that Staphylococcus sp. has the highest percentage of occurrence. The antibiotic sensitivity test indicated the varied resistance of isolated bacteria to antibiotics used in this study, although most isolated bacteria were sensitive to erythromycin and chloramphenicol except the isolates of E. coli which were the most resistant to the antibiotics used. The high prevalence of bacterial agents isolated from students’ mobile phones was attributed to poor hygiene and sanitary practices. It is recommended that students should wash their hands after using mobile phones, before eating or undertaking any venture requiring sepsis.

Denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (dHPLC) was developed to screen DNA variations by separating heteroduplex and homoduplex DNA fragments by ion-pair reverse-phase liquid chromatography. In this study, we have evaluated the dHPLC screening method and direct sequencing for the detection of GATA1 mutations in peripheral blood and bone marrow aspirates samples from children with Down syndrome (DS). Cases were ascertained consecutively as part of an epidemiological study of DS and hematological disorders in Brazil. A total of 130 samples corresponding to 115 children with DS were analysed using dHPLC and direct sequencing methods to detect mutations in GATA1 exons 2, 3 and 4 gene sequences. The overall detection rate of sequencing and dHPLC screening methods was similar. Twenty mutations were detected in exon 2 and one mutation in exon 3 (c.231_232 dupGT) sequences of acute megakaryoblastic leukemia and transient leukemia samples. Four GATA1 mutations were newly described [c.155C > G; c.156_178 del23 bp; c.29_30 del GG; c.182C > A and c.151A > T,c.153_162 del 10 bp). Out of four, three had single nucleotide change. In conclusion, our results indicate that dHPLC is an efficient and valuable tool for GATA1 mutational analysis.