How to stop the swine flu? No handshaking, try Barack Obama's fist bump!

Last year you could have seen president Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle doing the fist bump on many occasion during the election campaign. Now Obama’s lovely greeting gesture might help to stop the swine flu epedimic! Why? Swine flu prevention has become for a large part become a matter of “hand hygiene”, so the handshake is now no longer recommended to greet other people in daily life. Instead the fist bump is much more harmless in terms of hand hygiene! Philip M. Tierno Jr., PhD, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University Medical Centre says: “Eighty percent of all infectious diseases are transmitted by contact both direct and indirect – direct such as kissing, indirect such as shaking someone’s hand. Frequent hand washing is the single most important weapon we have against the swine flu disease.” With the all the focus on H1NI or swine flu, the alternative of the fist bump might become very helpfull in the battle with the ‘influenza A’ virus. For, over the past weeks various reports from around the world indicate that despite the danger, people find it very hard not to use the handshake merely because in many countries handshaking has become so normal – especially in the business and workplace etiquette! So, don’t hesitate … no handshaking anymore, try the obama’s fistbump! SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER READING: • The history of the fist bump! • Shake it up Barack Obama: let’s do the fist bump! • The swine flu etiquette: use good hand hygiene, no handshaking, no mask, to prevent a pandemic! • What the swine flu could do to a young girl in Uganda!

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