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In our daily life people often meet and greet with different styles and traditions, but mostly we do it by shaking our hands and it is quite normal around the globe.

But if a person who is infected by a flu virus can unintentionally transfer flu virus to somebody else who is not aware of it. And we cannot tell each and every one that we have got a flue virus. And normally people get offended before they get to know the reason of it. So in how many ways we can avoid such situations?

I searched for the same question but that was different from its point of view and was not more general.

This question isn't like the other two proposed questions because the other question are about never shaking hands when mine is about not shaking only in case of flu.

The following link to the source of studies explains the reasons of not shaking hand with a flu infected person: Influenza Transmission Research

Ael
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Mudassir Awan
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    Possible duplicate of [How to refuse to shake hands without offending the other party?](https://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/questions/8377/how-to-refuse-to-shake-hands-without-offending-the-other-party) – Ael Nov 21 '18 at 06:58
  • Also related: [How to avoid shaking hands](https://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/questions/19387/how-to-avoid-shaking-hands) – Ael Nov 21 '18 at 07:00
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    @Noon Although those solutions might also work here I think there's a notible difference between never shaking hands and usually shaking hands but not when you have the flu (or other contageous condition). – Imus Nov 21 '18 at 07:48
  • I'm confused by "...a person who is infected by a flu virus can unintentionally transfer flu virus to somebody else who is not aware of it. And we cannot tell each and every one that we have got a flue virus." Are you saying you have the flu and don't want to always explain it? Or you're afraid someone has the flu and isn't volunteering that fact? Or that it's possible they have the flu without realizing it? – Kat Nov 25 '18 at 01:52
  • @Kat your first two questions are what i mean to say – Mudassir Awan Nov 26 '18 at 14:05

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While the easiest way to handle this situation may be by telling a white lie ("oh, I'm sick, I wouldn't want to infect you"), I'm not very comfortable with telling lies. What I do instead is greeting the person with another body sign. As a Western European, what I'm used to do is rising one hand and smile, the same gesture that I use when I want to thank the driver that stopped at the pedestrian gateway to let me cross the street. I know that my Japanese friends prefer to bow a little. I'm pretty sure the nature of the gesture will depend on your culture, it could be waving a hand, saying "Hi!" and smiling, bowing.

Doing this makes you take a step ahead. You show that you're willing to be polite and warmly greet them, yet you reduce the chances that they will insist on shaking hands. If they do insist though, then you could tell the truth:

I'm sorry, I'd rather not shake hands at this time of the year if you don't mind, as I'm willing to reduce the chances of me getting sick.

Saying this doesn't incriminate the likely-to-be-sick person but rather insist on your own will of avoiding getting sick. However, this wouldn't work if you already shook hands with other colleagues before and bluntly tell them this so, maybe it'd be better to try greeting everyone with the gesture I already mention, then say this to anyone willing to shake your hand, even if you suspect that they're not sick.

avazula
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