{"id":35016,"date":"2014-07-28T10:40:11","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T10:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=35016"},"modified":"2014-07-28T10:40:11","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T10:40:11","slug":"fist-bumps-cleaner-than-handshakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=35016","title":{"rendered":"Fist bumps ‘cleaner than handshakes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sweaty palms, vice-like grips or the insufferable limp hand may be the least of your hand-shaking worries.<\/p>\n

Scientists at Aberystwyth University in Wales have shown that a shake transfers more bacteria than other forms of hand-on-hand action.<\/p>\n

They are calling for the widespread adoption of the fist bump instead, especially during flu outbreaks.<\/p>\n

Public Health England whimsically suggested a Victorian-age bow or curtsy would be even safer.<\/p>\n

The researchers took a pair of sterile rubber gloves and dipped one into a bacterial-broth so the outside was completely coated in\u00a0E. coli<\/em>.<\/p>\n

They then performed a range of hand manoeuvres including handshakes of varying intensities, fist bumps and high-fives.<\/p>\n

The findings, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, showed a handshake transferred 10 times as many bacteria as a meeting of fists, while a palm-to-palm high-five was somewhere in-between.<\/p>\n

It is thought the smaller area of contact and shorter duration in the bump reduced the spread of bacteria.<\/p>\n

Dr Dave Whitworth told the BBC News website: “There is definitely a serious side to this story, superficially it is very whimsical, but there is a serious message underneath.<\/p>\n

“If there’s a flu pandemic then handshaking might be something you want to think about or in a hospital with the spread of superbugs.”<\/p>\n

It is not the first time the argument has been raised. There have been calls in the Journal of the American Medical Association to\u00a0ban handshakes from hospitals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of inertia into changing this, a handshake is a badge of office and medics are trained to have a firm handshake to infuse patients with confidence, but you’ve got to ask is that appropriate behaviour,” Dr Whitworth added.<\/p>\n

However, Dr Whitworth admitted he was no good at bumping knuckles and repeatedly got the angle wrong.<\/p>\n

“My hand greeting of choice remains the handshake, but I do it as little as possible.”<\/p>\n

Peter Hoffman, an expert in infection control at Public Health England, told the BBC: “Fist bumping may be one small way of avoiding getting nasty germs on your hands but there are lots of others that more than make up for it.<\/p>\n

“E.coli<\/em>\u00a0bacteria are found in the gut and so if someone has these bugs on their hands then basically their skin is covered in poo.<\/p>\n

“If we washed our hands thoroughly and consistently after going to the toilet then we could substantially reduce the spread of harmful bugs and reduce illness.<\/p>\n

“The ultimate approach to avoiding germs would be if we went back to the Victorian age when on meeting someone you would bow or curtsy from a respectful distance – no germs there!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sweaty palms, vice-like grips or the insufferable limp hand may be the least of your hand-shaking worries. Scientists at Aberystwyth University in Wales have shown that a shake transfers more bacteria than other forms of hand-on-hand action. They are calling for the widespread adoption of the fist bump instead, especially during flu outbreaks. Public Health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15,38],"class_list":["post-35016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chinese","tag-palaver-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}