Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (originally Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis) (July 1, 1818 - August 13, 1865) was the Hungarian-Austrian physician who demonstrated that puerperal fever (also known as "childbed fever") was contagious and that its incidence could be drastically reduced by enforcing appropriate hand-washing behavior by medical care-givers. He made this discovery in 1847 while head of the Maternity Department of the Vienna Lying-in Hospital.

Breakdown and death

In July 1865 Semmelweis suffered what appeared to be a nervous breakdown, though some modern historians believe his symptoms may have indicated the onset of Alzheimer's disease or senile dementia. After a journey to Vienna imposed by friends and relatives he was committed to an insane asylum, the Niederösterreichische Landesirrenanstalt in Wien Döbling, where he died only two weeks later. Traditionally, he is said to have died the victim of a generalized blood poisoning similar to that of puerperal fever, which had been contracted from a surgically infected finger. According to an article in the Journal of Medical Biography by H. O. Lancaster, however, this is not true:

Related Topics:
Nervous breakdown - Alzheimer's disease - Senile dementia - Vienna - Insane asylum - Blood poisoning

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:"Much biographical material has been written on Semmelweis, yet the true story of his death on 13 August 1865 was not confirmed until 1979, by S. B. Nuland. After some years of mental deterioration, Semmelweis was committed to a private asylum in Vienna. There he became violent and was beaten by asylum personnel; from the injuries received he died within a fortnight. Thus some dramatic theories have been destroyed, including that he was injured and infected at an autopsy, which if true would have been a wonderful case of Greek irony."

Related Topics:
13 August - 1865

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Only after Dr. Semmelweis's death was the germ theory of disease developed, and he is now recognized as a pioneer of antiseptic policy and prevention of nosocomial disease.

Related Topics:
Germ - Antiseptic - Nosocomial disease

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