TY - JOUR T1 - Covid-19 and mobile phone hygiene in healthcare settings JF - BMJ Global Health JO - BMJ Global Health DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002505 VL - 5 IS - 4 SP - e002505 AU - Sunil Kumar Panigrahi AU - Vineet Kumar Pathak AU - M Mohan Kumar AU - Utsav Raj AU - Karpaga Priya P Y1 - 2020/04/01 UR - http://gh.bmj.com/content/5/4/e002505.abstract N2 - Summary boxCovid-19 is now a global pandemic. There is some evidence to suggest possible fomite transmission. Hence, inanimate objects play a significant role in their transmission.In this commentary, we discuss ‘mobile phones’ as a potential vector of severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 spread. The use of mobile phones has not been restricted in hospital and other healthcare settings. Hence, mobile phones could be a missing link in controlling the covid-19 pandemic.We recommend, as part of efforts to control the covid-19 pandemic, awareness of ‘mobile phone hygiene’; restriction of mobile phone use in healthcare settings; avoiding the sharing of mobile phones, headphones or headsets of any kind; and widely disseminated advice from mobile companies, governments and WHO on how to disinfect mobile phones.Hospitals and other healthcare settings can facilitate the spread of infectious diseases.1 The recent outbreak of covid-19 is the third documented spillover of animal coronavirus to humans in the past two decades, after severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome in 2012. It has brought the focus of disease epidemiology to the healthcare institutions. The index case which sets the motion of outbreak investigations and subsequent control measures are initiated only after coming in contact with the healthcare institutions.2 Hospitals without proper infection control measures are a liability during an epidemic.3 They may become sources of hospital-acquired infections. They may initiate a vicious cycle of new disease diagnosis and newly acquired infections, both simultaneously occurring in the same hospital. For any infectious disease, it is the mode of transmission that bridges the source or reservoir with a susceptible host. It is this point which needs to be interrupted to prevent and control further disease transmission.4 Healthcare professionals are a bridge between infectious patients in hospitals (core population) and … ER -