Transcript Semmelweiss Main Activity

Produce a profile Ignaz Semmelweis.
• Who was he?
• Where and when was he born?
• What did he discover?
• How did he make this discovery?
• Why was this discovery so important?
Ignaz Semmelweis
(1818 – 1865)
Hungarian physician

 Medical students spent their mornings before
their clinic doing dissections on
cadavers
 They did not wash their hands after finishing
 1847: Semmelweis’s friend, Jacob Kolletschka
dies after he is accidentally stabbed
with a student’s scalpel during a
dissection
 Kolletschka’s symptoms were similar to those
of puerperal fever
Jakob Kolletschka
(1803 - 1847)
Professor of Forensic Medicine
at Vienna General Hospital
CONCLUSIONS
 The students were transferring something from the cadavers to
the mothers on their hands
 He could prevent deaths from puerperal fever by getting the
medical students to disinfect their hands
over 10% of mothers in the First Clinic
regularly died of puerperal fever
- half as many mothers in the Second
Clinic died of puerperal fever
 The First Clinic was used to train medical students
• The Second Clinic was used to train midwives
Explain the difference between the two sets of results, using the information that
you have researched about Semmelweis and his discoveries.
 Semmelweis made doctors who had been carrying out dissections or autopsies wash their hands
with a chlorine handwash before seeing patients . What was the result of this advise?
 Semmelweis had difficulty persuading other
doctors to wash their hands because he
couldn’t explain why washing hands
was important
 We now know that puerperal fever is caused
by a type of bacteria known as
Streptococci
 These bacteria are found in the throat and
nasal passages of most healthy people
Extension
Find out what “germ theory” is. Explain why Semmelweis
may not have been able to explain his ideas and what the
consequences of this were.