Locked in a house crazy and mortally wounded by blows: the end of Ignaz Semmelweis can not be more tragic to be. The belligerent doctor was more despised than venerated during his lifetime. Today, her services for better hygiene are recognized, and her message still saves millions of lives every year.

The bad air in the city or a blockage in the chest have long been the cause of the death of many mothers in childbirth. In the middle of the 19th century, Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis tried to clean up these theories. His observation: in maternity clinics where patients were treated by sisters or midwives, the mortality rate was much lower than in services where doctors had contact with the woman giving birth. The doctors had previously often dissected corpses and came "with cadavertheilen adhering to the hand," Semmelweis told women. The simple washing of hands with soap, if done, was of little use

At the Vienna General Hospital, the doctor born 200 years ago (July 1, 1818), in 1847, successfully disinfected hands in 1847. But his colleagues often had only ridicule, mockery and contempt for him. "The stronger his testimony, the stronger the resistance against him," says Bernhard Küenburg, founder of the Semmelweis badociation. From germs you did not know anything yet. According to Küenburg, the idea that doctors bring death would have seemed absurd to many, even for reasons of national pride

Disinfection to be established. "He practically forced doctors and sisters," says Didier Pittet of Geneva University Hospital. It was an unpleasant procedure. Doctors and nurses must keep their hands in the aggressive solution of chlorinated lime for at least five minutes to ensure skin without germs. "It was a very good remedy, but very bad for the hands," said Pittet, who runs the clean hands campaign of the World Health Organization (WHO). According to WHO, the campaign saves five to eight million lives each year.

Repeated disinfection of hands in hospitals is still not evident. Even in Europe, only 50% of the events defined by the WHO would make hands free from germs with an alcohol solution, says the hygiene expert at the Vienna General Hospital, Elisabeth Presterl. This makes life unnecessarily easy for germs. According to estimates in Germany, about 10 to 15,000 deaths a year are attributed to infections that patients receive only at the clinic. "About a third of these infections can be prevented by more hygiene," says Petra Gastmeier, director of the National Reference Center (NRZ) for surveillance of nosocomial infections.

Patients with a weak immune system and those with a catheter present a particularly high risk of infection. According to Gastmeier, visitors to hospitals should also disinfect their hands to reduce the risk of infection, preferably at the entrance of the hospital and entering the patient's room

Gerd Fätkenheuer, President of the University of Zurich. German Society for Infectious Diseases (DGI), mainly due to time constraints. "The exposure time of alcoholic disinfectants is usually 30 seconds.A nurse easily has 100 patient contacts in her team," says the infectiologist.This means at least 50 minutes of disinfection time.Fätkenheuer says that it is difficult to achieve in case of shortage of staff and emergency in many stations.

Message of Semmelweis for more hygiene in Germany Since its creation in 2008, the campaign "Aktion Saubere Hände" Increasingly widespread Ten years after the start of the project, participating hospitals reported a significant increase in the use of hand sanitizers. "Between 2008 and 2018, consumption increased by 50%", Gastmeier explains.The Federal Republic is, according to Pittet, one of the leading countries. "The best way to enforce the regulation in Australia, but soon to follow Germany."

"The disinf ection of the hands should be like putting the seat belt in the car in the flesh, "says Gastmeier. In particular, older physicians are often poor role models for residents because hand hygiene was not part of their training. According to Pittet's experience, the nursing staff is much more zealous than the doctors. Küenburg encourages all patients to face the medical staff with confidence: "Professor, have you ever disinfected your hands?" Must be a normal question.

This would be in the sense of Semmelweis, who was still considered a long time after his death "savior of mothers" venerated doctors. His contract in Vienna was not extended in 1849. He went to Budapest and in two clinics, there was also a drop in mortality among women. Finally, he was meanwhile mentally ill in Vienna in an insane asylum, where he finally died. The circumstances of his death are not completely clear. He may have been beaten so hard by the guards during a failed escape attempt that he died in 1865 as a result of his injuries. "Today, he will certainly be one of the favorites for the Nobel Prize," says the rector of the Vienna Medical University, Markus Müller, of course.

Back to the home