Science of Handwashing

In 1846, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis worked in a hospital in Vienna where maternity patients were dying at an alarming rate. He compared the statistics between the hospital and a clinic staffed only by midwives and found the hospital had five times as many deaths in their maternity ward. Using the scientific method, he eliminated variables one at a time and eventually discovered those dying had been treated by student physicians who worked on cadavers during an anatomy class before beginning their rounds in the maternity ward.

Handwashing was an unrecognized hygienic practice at the time and pathogenic bacteria from the cadavers regularly were transmitted to the mothers via the students' hands. In an experiment considered quaint at best by his colleagues, Semmelweis insisted that his students wash their hands before treating the mothers; deaths on the maternity ward fell five-fold.

Unfortunately, Semmelweis’s ideas were not accepted by all of his colleagues. Indeed, many were outraged at the suggestion that they were the cause of their patients’ miserable deaths. Consequently, Semmelweis met with enormous resistance and criticism. It was decades before the medical profession was ready to accept his discovery.

This week, a look at the science of handwashing.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "They say dreams are the windows of the soul – take a peek and you can see the inner workings, the nuts and bolts." - Henry Bromel, Northern Exposure, The Big Kiss, 1991

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