A LIFESAVING WAKE-UP CALL FROM THE PAST: “WASH YOUR HANDS!”

Professors of the Medical School, University of Pest (1863). The person marked with an X is Semmelweis. Childbed or puerperal fever has been a terrible, lethal disease and presented a substantial unsolved problem in medicine since Hippocrates. In 1847, a Hungarian obstetrician, Ignacz F. Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of childbed fever, and generally, infections in hospitals and clinics could be drastically cut by hand disinfection. Unfortunately, his observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time, and his concept that the only condition that mattered was cleanliness was extreme at the time. It was largely ignored, despite cutting the mortality rate by 90% both in Vienna and in his Pest clinic. He was rejected and ridiculed by the medical community simply because accepting it would have required admitting personal responsibility. The pioneer of hygiene, the “savior of mothers,” died from sepsis at the age of 47 under suspicious circumstances. However, handwashing emphasized by Dr. Semmelweis is still a critical World Health Organization patient safety initiative. Finally, we summarize lessons of his life that are far-reaching and proper even today.