Portrait of Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis Credit: Wellcome Library, London.
Today, more than ever, we are quite aware of the significance of handwashing in disease prevention. We have Ignaz Semmelweis to thank for introducing this life-saving procedure in the mid-1800s.
Ignaz Semmelweis (1818 - 1865) was an Hungarian physician who discovered the cause of puerperal fever (postpartum fever) and was the first to propose an antiseptic policy for physicians. It involved handwashing before and after each medical examination.
Ignaz Semmelweis was born in Hungary. After receiving his doctor of medicine degree from Vienna in 1844, Semmelweis decided to specialise in obstetrics. He began work at the Vienna Hospital, Austria, in 1846. At the time, the maternal mortality rate in Europe was as high as 25–30%. The leading cause was puerperal fever, an infection of the female reproductive organs, that was killing postpartum women.