Ignaz Semmelweis
1818–1865 · Vienna · Pioneer of infection control.
Contribution
In the 1840s, showed that handwashing with chlorinated lime in obstetrical clinics drastically cut puerperal (“childbed”) fever — arguing that “cadaverous particles” transmitted on physicians’ hands caused disease.
Why It Still Matters
Hand hygiene is still the cheapest, highest-yield infection-control intervention. Semmelweis anticipated germ theory before microbes were accepted as the cause.
Key Links
- Hub: Medical Microbiology History
- Concepts: Germ Theory
- Clinical: MOC - Clinical Microbiology
- MOC: MOC - Fundamentals of Microbiology
Active Recall
- What intervention did Semmelweis introduce, and what outcome changed?
- Why was his work resisted despite clear outcome data?