Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis[Note 1] (July 1, 1818 – August 13, 1865) (born Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis) was a Hungarian physician of German extraction
[1] [2] now known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "savior of mothers",
[3] Semmelweis discovered that the
incidence of
puerperal fever could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in
obstetrical clinics.
[3] Puerperal fever was common in mid-19th-century hospitals and often fatal, with mortality at 10%–35%. Semmelweis proposed the practice of washing with
chlorinated lime solutions in 1847
[3] while working in
Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of
midwives' wards. He published a book of his findings in
Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever.
Despite various publications of results where hand-washing reduced
mortality to below 1%, Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. Some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and Semmelweis could offer no acceptable scientific explanation for his findings. Semmelweis's practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when
Louis Pasteur confirmed the
germ theory and
Joseph Lister, acting on the French
microbiologist's research, practiced and operated, using hygienic methods, with great success. In 1865, Semmelweis was committed to an
asylum, where he died at age 47 after being beaten by the guards, only 14 days after he was committed