Ignaz Semmelweis By Brittany Allred Background Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Semmelweis By Brittany Allred

Background Ignaz Semmelweis was born on July 1, 1818 in the Taban, an area of Buda, part of present Budapest, Hungary. � He was the fifth child out of ten of Josef and Teresia Müller Semmelweis. � Ignaz Semmelweis began studying law at the University of Vienna in the autumn of 1837, but by the following year, he had switched to medicine. � He was awarded his doctorate degree in medicine in 1844. �

Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician whose work demonstrated that handwashing could drastically reduce the number of women dying after childbirth. q This work took place in the 1840 s, while he was Director of the maternity clinic at the Vienna General Hospital in Austria. DISCOVERY q

VIENNA GENERAL HOSPITAL There were 2 maternity wards, but had two very different rates of infection. 1 - staffed by medical students 2 - staffed by midwifes pupils who didn’t attend autopsies. v He switched the wards, and then mortality rate followed the students. v His suspicion was confirmed when a student cut off his finger and died of sepsis. v May 1847 he insisted that hand washing be done with chlorinated water. v

Graphs First clinic Year 1841 1842 1843 Births 3, 036 3, 287 3, 060 Deaths 237 518 274 Second clinic Rate (%) 7. 8 15. 8 9. 0 Births D e a t h Rate s (%) 2, 442 8 6 3. 5 2, 659 2 0 2 7. 6 2, 739 1 6 4 6. 0 1844 3, 157 260 8. 2 2, 956 6 8 2. 3 1845 3, 492 241 6. 9 3, 241 6 6 2. 0 3, 754 1 0 5 2. 8 1846 4, 010 459 11. 4

New Adventure In 1849 he was dropped from his post at the clinic. � He left Vienna and returned to Pest in 1850. � He worked for the next six years at the St. Rochus Hospital in Pest. � An epidemic of puerperal”childbirth” fever had broken out in the obstetrics department, and at his request, Semmelweis was put in charge of the department �

Private practice � � � In 1855 he was appointed professor of obstetrics at the University of Pest. He married, had five children, and developed his private practice. His ideas were accepted in Hungary, and the government addressed a circular to all district authorities ordering the introduction of the prophylactic methods of Semmelweis. In 1861 Semmelweis published his principal work, Die Ätiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers (“Etiology, Understanding and Preventing of Childbed Fever”). The weight of authority stood against his teachings. He addressed several open letters to professors of medicine in other countries, but to little effect In 1865 he suffered a breakdown and was taken to a mental hospital where he died. Semmelweis’ doctrine was subsequently accepted by medical science. His influence on the development of knowledge and control of infection was hailed by Joseph Lister, the father of modern antisepsis:

References � Kennedy, M. (2010). A brief history of disease, science and medicine, from the ice age to the genome project. Asklepiad Pr. � http: //semmelweis. org � www. sciencemuseum. org � http: //www. britannica. com