Prevent the Spread of Disease
Hand Shake Vs Elbow Bump
Although only a few scientific articles describe elbow skin and elbow clothing transmission of disease causing pathogens, hand transmission is well documented.
Hands are unique reservoirs of virus and bacteria with multiple worrisome disease transmission aspects:
1) Hands are often contaminated by respiratory virus when a patient coughs into their hands.
2) Hand use is the way we open doors, use handrails, and touch surfaces that are contaminated with virus or bacteria.
3) Hand use is essential for cleaning ourselves in the bathroom with resultant fecal contamination.
4) Hands are often used by children and adults to touch the mucous membranes of their eyes, nose and mouth when itching these areas or eating food.
5) Multiple people may use and touch the same surfaces, each using their hands, but often not considering contamination aspects. Neither bacteria nor viruses can be seen with the unaided eye, thus their presence may be unrecognized.
Though not proven by scientific studies, it is plausible that elbow contact, with or without clothing covering the elbow, is much less likely than hand contact to transmit disease pathogens.
Several aspects of the elbow use are unique in this regard:
1) The utility of elbow use is primarily to bend the arm and help place a hand where it is needed. It is not a primary point of contact for most physical work.
2) In most people the elbow is unable to touch the mucous membrane surfaces of the eye, nose or throat.
One concerning factor regarding elbow contamination is that some children and adults will direct their coughs and sneezes into the elbow to prevent droplet spread of disease through the air to other people. In theory an elbow bump could transfer the pathogens to another person’s elbow. That second person would have to touch the contaminated elbow with the opposite hand and then touch their eyes, nose or mouth.
We propose that elbow touching is much less likely than hand touching to result in disease transmission. Studies examining this issue are welcomed.