‘More bacteria on phones than on toilets’

Mobile phones carry 10 times more bacteria than toilet seats, so it shouldn’t be surprising that a man in Uganda reportedly contracted Ebola after stealing one.

He stole the phone from a quarantined hospital ward near the site of a recent Ebola outbreak, reports said. But regardless of your proximity to an Ebola outbreak, your cellphone is still probably grimy, said Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona.

“They’ve got quite a bit on them,” Mr Gerba said. “When’s the last time you cleaned your cellphone?”