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The history of hand hygiene Dr Semmelweis decided to investigate,
AT the start of 2018, we found ourselves
seeking differences between the two
in the midst of what appeared to be
handwashing but to no avail. Another historical fact on the matter is that just
an epidemic of yet another strain of
wards. He noticed that doctors
a few years later in Scutari, Italy, the Crimean War
influenza. Once again, we saw the
and medical students often
brought about a new handwashing champion,
now well-known campaign ‘Catch
visited the maternity ward directly
Florence Nightingale. At a time when most people
It, Bin It, Kill It’ (The ‘Kill It’ part of
after performing an autopsy,
believed that foul odours called miasmas caused
the process being to thoroughly
a somewhat scary thought.
infections, Florence Nightingale implemented
wash your hands with, preferably,
Imagine this happening today!
handwashing and other hygiene practices in the
Based on this observation,
war hospital in which she worked, achieving a
an antibacterial hand wash) thus
reduction in infections.
preventing the spread of germs, make perfect sense.
he developed a theory that those performing
However, our hands are only clean until they come
autopsies got ‘cadaverous particles’ on their hands,
In more recent times researchers looked at the
into contact with another object or person.
which they then carried from the autopsy room into
amount of alcohol hand rub and soap purchased
the maternity ward.
by hospitals against trends of common infections
Handwashing with soap and water has been considered a measure of personal hygiene for
Midwives did not conduct surgery or autopsies,
such as MRSA and Clostridium Difficile. They found
centuries and has also been generally embedded in
so they were not exposed to these particles. As a
that the total amount of soap and alcohol gel being
religious and cultural habits. You may be surprised
result, Dr Semmelweis imposed a new rule where
purchased by hospitals tripled across the four years
to learn that the link between handwashing and
handwashing with chlorine was mandatory for
of the study, from 22ml per patient per day to 60ml
the spread of disease was established only two
doctors. The rates of death in his maternity ward
per patient per day. Over the same period, rates of
centuries ago.
fell dramatically, and thus provided the first proof
MRSA more than halved and C. Difficile infections fell
that cleansing hands could prevent infection.
by more than 40%.
Ignaz Semmelweis - a Hungarian doctor working
Facts sourced - Global handwashing partnership
in Vienna General Hospital - is known as the father of
Unfortunately, the innovation was not popular
hand hygiene. In 1846, he noticed that the women
with his colleagues - some were so disgruntled
and BBC News. For more information on infection
giving birth in the medical student/doctor-run
that Semmelweis was implying that they were to
control please visit WWW.BICS.ORG.UK.
maternity ward were much more likely to develop
blame for the deaths that they stopped washing
a fever and die compared to the women giving
their hands! Semmelweis tried to persuade other
birth in the adjacent midwife-run maternity ward.
doctors in European hospitals of the benefits of
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