Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (German: [ˈɪɡnaːts ˈzɛml̩vaɪs]; Hungarian: Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp [ˈsɛmmɛlvɛjs ˈiɡnaːts ˈfyløp]; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist of German descent who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures and was described as the "saviour of mothers". Postpartum infection, also known as puerperal fever or childbed fever, consists of any bacterial infection of the reproductive tract following birth and in the 19th century was common and often fatal. Semmelweis demonstrated that the incidence of infection could be drastically reduced by requiring healthcare workers in obstetrical clinics to disinfect their hands. In 1847, he proposed hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions at Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had thrice the mortality of midwives' wards. The maternal mortality rate dropped from 18% to less than 2%, and he published a book of his findings, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever, in 1861.

Despite his research, Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. He could offer no theoretical explanation for his findings of reduced mortality due to hand-washing, and some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and mocked him for it. In 1865, the increasingly outspoken Semmelweis allegedly suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum by his colleagues. In the asylum, he was beaten by the guards. He died 14 days later from a gangrenous wound on his right hand that may have been caused by the beating.

His findings earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory of disease, giving Semmelweis' observations a theoretical and scientific explanation, and Joseph Lister, acting on Pasteur's research, practised and operated using hygienic methods with great success.

Ignaz Semmelweis was born on 1 July 1818 in the Tabán neighbourhood of Buda, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire. He was the fifth child out of 10 of the prosperous grocer family of József Semmelweis and Teréz Müller.

Of German ancestry, his father was an ethnic German born in Kismarton, in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Eisenstadt, Austria), and his mother an ethnic German from Buda. József Semmelweis was granted citizenship in Buda in 1806 and, in the same year, he opened a wholesale business for spices and general consumer goods. The company was named Zum weißen Elefanten (At the White Elephant) in the Meindl House (today's Semmelweis Museum of Medical History, located at 1–3 Apród Street, Budapest). By 1810, he was a wealthy man and married Teréz Müller, daughter of the coachbuilder Fülöp Müller.

Ignaz began studying law at the University of Vienna in the autumn of 1837, but switched to medicine. He was awarded his doctor of medicine degree in 1844. After failing to obtain an appointment in a clinic for internal medicine, Semmelweis specialized in obstetrics. His teachers included Carl von Rokitansky, Joseph Škoda, and Ferdinand von Hebra.

Semmelweis was appointed assistant to Professor Johann Klein in the First Obstetrical Clinic of the Vienna General Hospital on 1 July 1846.

There were two maternity clinics at the Viennese hospital. The First Clinic had an average maternal mortality rate of about 10% due to puerperal fever. The Second Clinic's rate averaged less than 4%. Women begged to be admitted to the Second Clinic, due to the reputation of the First Clinic. Semmelweis described desperate women begging on their knees not to be admitted to the First Clinic.