In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google has replaced its homepage logo with a doodle of Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, to honour the Hungarian physician and scientist known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures and a pioneer in hand washing.
In the 19th century, Semmelweis found out that the incidence of puerperal fever (also known as “childbed fever”) could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics. Puerperal fever was common in mid-19th-century hospitals and often fatal. Semmelweis proposed the practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847 while working in Vienna General Hospital’s First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors’ wards had three times the mortality of midwives’ wards.
Even though there was clear evidence that the rate of infection was cut down drastically with the practice of hand washing, his theory was not commonly accepted because it did not align with established scientific and medical opinions of the time.
Anyways thanks to the Doctor’s efforts, the rate of infection at Vienna General Hospital went down sharply.
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, practised and operated using hygienic methods, with great success.
Learn more about hand washing tips from the WHO y clicking here
