What you do when a person infected with flu extends his hand for a shake?

Flu season and social etiquette don’t go together. It’s a catch-22 situation. You can’t afford to be rude and refuse a hand shake. On the other hand, shaking hand with an infected person can put you at risk.

Such dilemmas are common especially in the workplace or at a party. You cannot avoid a colleague sneezing and coughing loudly in a cubicle next to you or refuse to shake hands during client meetings. Social etiquette is important but so is the need to keep yourself healthy.

Flu Season and Social Etiquette

Shaking hands gets tricky during the flu season. But at the same time, you don’t want to be rude either. If you must shake hands with a person who may be carrying a flu infection, use your hand sanitizer to keep your hands germ-free.

Etiquette expert Thomas Farley told Today, “As the person who is healthy, you never want to refuse somebody’s hand, even if you know they’re sick. But you get yourself to the washroom as quickly as you can to scrub up so then you don’t spread the germs to others.”

When a person stricken with influenza virus sneezes, the virus cloud travels far. When a person sneezes near you in a confined space such as an airplane, the germs don’t stay around the infected passenger. Rather the airborne germs circulate through the aircraft making others vulnerable towards contracting the infection.

The same holds true for an office environment too where influenza-infected people can spread the virus even from their cubicles.

If you are the one who is suffering from the flu, it is quite alright to gently refuse to shake a hand. It is better to avoid coming to office and stay home. Take plenty of rest and recover from the flu as quickly as you can. And if you are the boss, ask the sick employee to go home and rejoin only when he or she is fully cured of the flu. The important point is to avoid the spread of the virus as much as possible.

Use Hand Sanitizer

Such restrain and care should be observed while aboard a plane as well especially when a passenger sitting near you shows signs of being infected with the flu. Use hand sanitizer frequently and avoid touching anything that the sick passenger touched. Moreover avoid touching your face as germs enter our bodies through hand-to-mouth or hand-to-eye-and-nose contact.

Along with your handy hand sanitizer, carry your AirTamer A302 air purifier while traveling in an airplane or even at work. The AirTamer emits healthy negative ions that push away airborne germs, bacteria and viruses away from your breathing space.

AirTamer A310 personal rechargeable air purifier is equipped with a state-of-the-art electrostatic purification and creates a 3 foot sphere of cleaner, healthier air around your head. It cleans the air of atomic sized pollutants that even traditional air purifiers leave behind. Ensure a cleaner zone of healthier air while traveling, in public places or in other poor air quality locations especially during flu season.