When Hand Washing Went Against Scientific Consensus

The tragic story of the doctor who discovered the power of hand washing, and how the scientific community dismissed science and destroyed his career.

A Physician Ahead of His Time

Following the science. Those three words have instilled a great deal of controversy over the last three years. Over 150 years ago, consensus and science boiled over. Only it wasn’t around vaccines, it was around washing your hands.

Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian doctor in 1846. Heralded as a ‘physician scientist,’ Semmelweis was a different type of doctor. He didn’t think of disease as some imbalance - some unfortunate condition brought on by evil spirits or bad air.

Semmelweis was fascinated with human anatomy and it was there he sought for answers. It is around this time that autopsies became more and more common. Naturally, new age physicians like Semmelweis were interested in autopsy findings. 

Death in the Maternity Ward

In Vienna, Semmelweis had just started in the maternity ward of the General Hospital. At the time, women in the maternity ward were all too often dying from fever - childbed fever. Semmelweis began to dig in and look for answers. 

General Hospital featured two maternity wards. One was staffed by students and men, the other by midwives. This made it easy for Semmelweis to run a comparison. 

What he found surprised him. The ward run by students and male doctors experienced a death rate nearly five times higher than the midwives' ward. 

The scientific process began. At first he wondered if the birthing position was the cause. It didn’t. Next he noticed a priest ringing a bell and he wondered if that stressed the women. It didn’t. 

The Breakthrough Moment

Frustrated, Semmelweis went on vacation. When he returned he learned a fellow physician had developed illness and died. When Semmelweis looked into it he recognized the symptoms - it was childbed fever. 

Semmelweis then realized what was causing the issue. The male doctors and students were conducting autopsies, not midwives. And when they’d leave cadavers, they’d rush to deliver babies - without washing their hands.

Hand Washing Mandate

He immediately imposed a mandatory hand washing rule. Almost instantly the rate of childbed fever fell. Semmelweis had followed the scientific process, collected data, and had supportive results. His hand washing rule was backed by science.

Mortality having fallen from 18% to 1%, he had saved lives. Having done that, one would have expected Semmelweis would have been heralded for his accomplishment. He received no such thing,

Doctors were furious. They felt he was accusing doctors of giving women in their care childbed fever. Arguments erupted. Doctors criticized Semmelweis. In return he berated them for disagreeing with him. Sound familiar?

The doctors would win. Semmelweis ended up losing his job. He would venture across Europe struggling to convince others that his hand hygiene protocol would save lives. He would never gain traction.

Outcast and Committed

Semmelweis would wind up being committed to an asylum for mentally deranged people. The year was 1865. Two weeks into his stay at the asylum, Semmelweis was beaten to death.

Today, hand hygiene is heralded by the scientific community as a simple and effective way to prevent the spread of germs and sickness. It even has its own day - May 5th - World Hand Hygiene Day.

There are monuments, landmarks, and a university named for Semmelweis. But he never saw his discovery, and the countless lives it would save, come into mainstream adoption - or acceptance by the scientific community.

History for the Hurried:

November 15, 1864: During the Civil War, Union troops under General William T. Sherman burned Atlanta. They were reliant on engineers keeping the tracks open to conquer the South.

November 17, 1800: The U.S. Congress met for the first time in the new capital at Washington, D.C. President John Adams then became the first occupant of the Executive Mansion, later renamed the White House.