What do Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis and mothers everywhere have in common? The knowledge that proper handwashing is an important means of preventing the spread of disease-causing germs. Dr. Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician who, in the 1840s, demonstrated that the mortality rate among mothers who delivered in the First Obstetrics Clinic at the General Hospital of Vienna was significantly lower when hospital staff cleaned their hands with an antiseptic agent prior to patient contact. This was the beginning of the concept of infection control, not just in hospital settings, but in public health in general. Today the value of proper handwashing […]