Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Semmelweis (born 1818 - died 1865) was a Hungarian doctor who discovered bacteria, disease and infection. He is the father of infection control. Semmelweis observed that if the doctors washed their hands and disinfected them, the number of infections of childbed fever could be reduced. For this reason, Semmelweis ordered his medical students to wash and disinfect their hands before and after medical rounds. He was mocked by fellow doctors, but he could not prove his findings, because bacteria had not been discovered yet. In 1870, Robert Koch proved that bacteria can cause disease. People such as Louis Pasteur proved what is known as the germ theory of disease only after Semmelweis' death.

Semmelweis probably had Alzheimer’s disease and he was sent to an asylum for being insane. He died after 14 days in the asylum possibly being beaten by the staff and inmates.

Ignaz Semmelweis Media

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  Teréz Müller and József Semmelweis, the parents of Ignaz Semmelweis

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  Semmelweis as a child, 1830

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  Puerperal fever mortality rates for the First and Second Clinics at the Vienna General Hospital 1841–1846: The First Clinic has the higher mortality rate.

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  Puerperal fever monthly mortality rates for the First Clinic at Vienna Maternity Institution 1841–1849. Rates drop markedly when Semmelweis implemented chlorine hand washing mid-May 1847 (see rates).

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  Streptococcus pyogenes (red-stained spheres) is responsible for most cases of severe puerperal fever. It is commonly found in the throat and nasopharynx of otherwise healthy carriers.

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  Wedding portraits of Semmelweis and Mária Weidenhofer by Ágost Canzi (1857)

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  Semmelweis's main work: Die Ätiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers, 1861 (front page)

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  In his 1861 book, Semmelweis presented evidence to demonstrate that the advent of pathological anatomy in Wien (Vienna) in 1823 (vertical line) was accompanied by the increased incidence of fatal childbed fever. The second vertical line marks introduction of chlorine hand washing in 1847.

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  Semmelweis's 1862 Open Letter to all Professors of Obstetrics

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  The last photograph of Ignaz Semmelweis from 1864