What was the only way kids could protect themselves from the cheese touch?

In the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series, the only way kids could protect themselves from the cheese touch was to touch someone who already had it, thus passing it on. If someone had the cheese touch, they were considered "infected" and avoided by their peers until they could pass it on to someone else. The cheese touch was a humorous and exaggerated concept representing social ostracization.