Reducing pathogen transmission in a hospital setting. Handshake verses fist bump: a pilot study

Cruise tap versus handshake: using common sense to reduce hand contamination and germ transmission on cruise ships

“…The 'fist bump' has been shown to reduce bacterial transmission between health care providers compared with the standard handshake [14,15]. When using it primarily for transfer prevention, the main points are to avoid touching the most contaminated area (palms and fingers), reducing total surface area touched and shorten contact time.…”

“…An outright ban is difficult in customer friendly environments -unless one recommends and vigorously promotes an acceptable substitute greeting, which must like the handshake convey trust, respect, balance, and equality. One such alternative -without palms touching -is the 'fist bump', also known as 'power five', 'dap', 'touch', 'fist pound', 'brofist' or 'respect' [14,15]. From a hygienic point of view a modification of the 'fist bump', the 'cruise tap', might be even better.…”

To Shake or Not to Shake: Can Bacterial Cross-contamination Occur from Handshaking in Healthcare Settings?

“…Bacterial contamination in the ward has been shown to be less with "fist bumping" as compared with handshaking. The WHO states hand-transmitted bacteria are still abundant in hospitals [9].…”

Cleanliness in context: reconciling hygiene with a modern microbial perspective

“…In cultivation-based studies, the length of direct patient contact is positively correlated with bacterial counts [109], and surface area and time of contact significantly affect the abundance of bacteria present on the hands of healthcare workers [112]. Older work has shown that soap and water handwashing is effective at removal of patient-acquired microbes [113], and more recent studies have shown alcohol-based handrubs to be as effective [109, 114] or even superior to soap and water [64].…”