Swine flu and handshake

With the all the focus on H1NI or swine flu, questions are being raised about the handshake which, after all, is a key part of business and workplace etiquette.
Back in April when the disease was breaking out, there was advice to avoid greeting people with kisses and handshakes. Similarly, the Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart has written to all priests of the archdiocese of Melbourne asking them asking them, among other things, not to exchange the sign of peace, to prevent the spread of swine flu. “During the Sign of Peace instead of shaking hands, kissing or embracing, as is practised in some parishes, it would be best to simply nod your head and avoid bodily contact.” So what impact would that have on general etiquette?

 

First, there are the warnings from some doctors. Philip M. Tierno Jr., PhD, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University Medical Centre has told medical newsletters: “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 disease."
But what impact have on the way people behave with each other? Particularly when so many meetings and interviews end with the ritual handshake? Etiquette experts say that as a preventative measure, there is nothing wrong with not extending your hand to greet people. A smile or a nod will do. For good reason too. After all, history tells us that the first handshakes began in medieval times when knights would offer an open hand to show they were unarmed. It is less necessary these days when you can get acquainted on the phone or on the Net, or for that matter when you are not riding around with a sword.
What about job interviews? What happens when you finish the interview and the person at the other end extends their hand? The Newsday blog quotes etiquette experts saying you have two options. 1. politely decline to shake hands or 2. shake hands, then go to the bathroom and wash.
Of course, there are handshakes and handshakes. Different types of handshakes leave different types of impressions and each will help shape a career. Columnist Nina Spitzer identifies five types of handshakes:

The Dead Fish (weak, limp, and sometimes clammy, easy to slip out of).
The Vice Grip: A bone-breaking grip which you still feel hours later.
The Claw: a claw-like grasp using just your fingers
The Water Pump: Exaggerated up and down movement as if pumping water
The Germ-a-phobic: Quick and barely touching where the person offering the hand appears to be afraid of germs.

The Consumerist site offers new types of handshakes that minimize human contact: the air fist bump, distance handshaking where you go through the motions of shaking hands without actually touching each other, or just standing there and blinking at each other.
Indeed, the fist bump might be the way of the future, particularly with President Obama making it seem so natural and acceptable in last year’s Presidential campaign. The Washington Post called it “the fist bump heard ‘round the world”.
So is hand shaking still acceptable these days when the world is seized in fear of swine flu? What would you do? What are the alternatives?

Swine flu struck Footballer

A young footballer with a Scottish first division club has been confirmed as having contracted swine flu.

Queen of the South defender Bob Harris, 21, picked up the H1N1 virus while on holiday in Ibiza.
He is the second player with the Dumfries side to get the disease, which has also struck midfielder Paul Burns.
The club's manager Gordon Chisholm said it appeared to be a mild case and the player had been told to rest and stay at home until the weekend.
Despite the two cases at the football team, the south west of Scotland remains clear of the disease as neither player lives in the region.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway is the only mainland health board in Scotland without a confirmed case of swine flu.

'Laid low'

The Queen of the South manager said he expected Harris to be back in action soon.
"Bobby Harris has been laid low with swine flu," he told the club's website.
"He caught it while on holiday with his pals in Ibiza but it's no worse than Paul Burns and he's just been told to rest and stay at home until the weekend."
Harris joined Queen of the South in the summer of 2007 from Clyde.
He has become a top performer for the team, scoring a goal against FC Nordsjaelland in the only European matches in the club's history.

Total rises to 91swine flu cases in New Delhi

Nine new cases of swine flu were reported in the country on Saturday taking the total number of cases to
91.Four cases each was reported from Delhi and Bangalore while one from Punjab, a senior health ministry official said.
In Bangalore, a family of four, which reached yesterday transiting through Germany from Newark in the United States by Lufthansa flight, tested positive for the virus.
The 38-year-old man, his 32-year-old wife and two children -- nine-year-old daughter and two-year-old son -- were quarantined at the Bangalore airport and later shifted to the identified health facility, the official said.
Four new cases were reported from the national capital which include a nine-year-old child who arrived here on Friday from Seattle by Asiana Airlines.
The other three, two women aged 40 years and 13 years and a nine-year-old boy, reported to the hospital yesterday after they had shown some symptoms.
The three had reached Delhi on June 23 from the United States.
The swine flu case from Gurdaspur in Punjab was an indigenous one which developed after contacts with a positive case reported on June 23, the official said.
About 645 persons have been tested so far of which 91 were found positive for swine flu.
Meanwhile, screening of inbound passengers from affected countries continues at 22 international airports. Till yesterday, 54,113 passengers have been screened out of which 37,296 came from affected countries. Of the 91 positive cases, 59 have been discharged.
The World Health Organisation has reported 59,814 confirmed cases of swine flu from 112 countries as on June 26. A total of 263 deaths have also been reported.