Ignaz Semmelweis - father of antisepsis

Ignaz Semmelweis was a doctor in the 1800s who discovered that doctors were responsible for childbed fever. He found this out when he observed that women who gave birth with no doctor present had lower rates of infection than those whose births were attended by doctors. The cause of this illness was bacteria being transferred from dead bodies to living ones, which could happen if the doctor went from performing an autopsy then delivering a baby without washing his hands. Despite the fact that he was able to reduce the rate of childbed fever in his institution from 10% to 1%, he had trouble convincing his fellow doctors about sanitation because he had no scientific concept regarding the disease's cause, only its prevention.

He became obsessed with convincing everyone of the necessity of antisepsis, and eventually lost his position at the hospital. After being dismissed from his job, he published a book entitled "The Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever", which brought him even more criticism. Some doctors pointed out that he had not proved his theory and others said that they could never practice medicine the way he suggested. Some doctors even claimed that a lack of hygiene could be a sign of a higher intelligence.

The widespread acceptance of handwashing in hospitals today is partially due to the Germ Theory, which states that diseases are caused by microorganisms. The theory was developed in the late 1800s, and scientists have been working on developing antimicrobial agents to treat infections since then. Before that it was believed that diseases were the result of being exposed to bad air. The first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. Penicillin was widely used during World War II for treating battle injuries and infections. Many other antibiotics were produced over the next few decades.

Of course, this all came too late for Semmelweis, who was committed to an insane asylum in 1865 after being unable to continue his medical practice. He died two weeks later, probably due to an infection he contracted during a procedure on one of the cadavers used for research. Ironically he died of the disease he had spent his life fighting.

References:

In 1850, Ignaz Semmelweis saved lives with three words: wash your hands, Dr. Howard Markel

Ignaz Semmelweis German-Hungarian physician, Imre Zoltán

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