Q. Is the fluid that emerges from a runny nose from elderly people considered like mucous and one has to wash hands when touching it?

A. Remoh (O.H. 92: 3) rules that one should wash hands after to be able to recite sayings of kedusha and learn Torah.

However. Mishna Berura (ibid 30) quotes the Vilna Gaon, Shaarei Teshuva and Mor Uketzia, who rule leniently.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a