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.

Related Topics

• Semmelweis University (Budapest)
• Joseph Lister