Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Semmelweis (1818–1865) was a Hungarian physician who showed that hand disinfection sharply reduced deaths from childbed fever in maternity clinics.

Childbed fever: A severe infection following childbirth, also called puerperal fever, that caused high maternal mortality before effective antisepsis. This was the disease whose deaths Semmelweis sought to prevent.
Vienna General Hospital: A major teaching hospital in Vienna where Semmelweis worked in its maternity clinic in the 1840s. Its two maternity divisions supplied the mortality contrast that prompted his investigation.
Carl Mayrhofer: An Austrian physician who investigated puerperal fever and supported the infectious explanation for its spread. His work helped defend contagion-based explanations amid resistance to Semmelweis’s conclusions.
Antisepsis: Practices that prevent infection by destroying or inhibiting microorganisms on living tissue or in wounds. Semmelweis’s hand disinfection was an early clinical application of antisepsis.
Handwashing: The cleansing of hands with water and, often, soap to remove dirt and microorganisms. Semmelweis required physicians to clean their hands before examining maternity patients.
First and Second Obstetrical Clinics of Vienna: Two maternity wards at Vienna General Hospital, staffed respectively by physicians and midwives during Semmelweis’s tenure. The first clinic had far more childbed-fever deaths than the midwife-run second clinic.
Ferdinand von Hebra: An Austrian dermatologist who publicly supported Semmelweis’s findings on preventing childbed fever. He helped communicate the clinical results to the medical community.
Infection prevention and control: Healthcare practices that reduce the spread of infectious agents among patients, staff, and communities. Routine hand hygiene remains a central descendant of his intervention.
Chlorinated lime: A calcium-based bleaching and disinfecting powder historically used to destroy odors and contaminants. He required physicians to wash with this solution after autopsies and before patient examinations.
Medical student: A person studying medicine, often receiving clinical instruction in a hospital. Students moved from autopsies to maternity examinations, suggesting a route for contamination.

Linked from 8 pages