historyanalysisWellcome Collection1840s–1860s · Vienna, Austria
A Vienna doctor showed in 1847 that handwashing could slash childbed fever deaths
In 1847 Ignaz Semmelweis, a doctor at Vienna General Hospital, noticed that women in the doctors' obstetrics ward died of childbed fever far more often than those attended by midwives. After a colleague died from a scalpel cut and an autopsy showed a similar condition, he suspected particles from corpses carried by doctors. He ordered attendants to wash their hands in a chlorinated solution before examining women in labour. The death rate in his division dropped sharply, from as many as 30 per cent in some months to a small fraction of that. His colleagues largely rejected his idea, and he died in 1865 after being committed to an asylum.
Doctors moved straight from autopsies to delivering babies without washing. Germs were not yet understood, so Semmelweis reasoned from patterns: the doctors' ward had far higher deaths than the midwives' ward. Washing with chlorinated solution removed the contamination that germ theory later explained.
Handwashing became a basic standard in hospitals and remains one of the simplest tools against infection. Semmelweis's story shows how a proven measure can be resisted for reasons of pride and tradition.
Medical history repeatedly shows new practices meeting resistance from established views. Later, Joseph Lister's antiseptic surgery and Louis Pasteur's germ theory supported Semmelweis's logic.
background
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (German: [ˈɪɡnaːts ˈfɪlɪp ˈzɛml̩vaɪs]; Hungarian: Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp [ˈsɛm(ː)ɛlvɛjs ˈiɡnaːts ˈfyløp]; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian medical doctor and scientist of German descent who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures, known as the "saviour of mothers". Postpartum infection, also known as puerperal fever or childbed fever, was common in the 19th century, and often fatal. Semmelweis demonstrated that the incidence of infection could be drastically reduced by requiring healthcare workers in obstetrical clinics to disinfect their hands. In 1847, he proposed hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions at Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had thrice the mortality of midwives' wards. The maternal mortality rate dropped from 18% to less than 2%, and he published a book of his findings, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever, in 1861.
From Wikipedia: Ignaz Semmelweis (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗see
key facts
- Born
- 1 July 1818
- Died
- 13 August 1865
- Known as
- physician, botanist
Facts: Wikidata (CC0)
Wellcome Collection · CC BY 4.0
Illustrative photo · József Borsos / Albert Doctor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
