Semmelweis Doctrine

Semmelweis Doctrine

Imagine living in the 1800’s and ask yourself, what would life be like? what kind of ideas did people have?. How was life like? Well let me take you in a trip of discovery and also to introduce to you one person that made a defference to us all. But first lets see in what kind of inviroment this person was born into.
“Today we routinely wash our hands in our offices orhospitals, as an effective infection control procedure. But, the man that initiated a hand washing policy in his hospital, in 1887, and made the mortality rate fell to almost zero, was dismissed from his position as a physician and professor”.

In early 1818’s people continue to try to find ways to explain things that they could not understand, Very much like today. It was during this time whenpersonalaties like Count Dracula, Wolfmen and the Frankenstein's monster. People believe to be very much alive, when witches where thought to fly in wooden broomsticks. Also during this time people still believe that mice and rats were grown from cheese left in the corner, frogs were believed to grow from pond scum, and maggots were thought to come from rotting meat. It was a time were people onlybelieve in what they could see. It was during this time that Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was born in Buda, Hungary on July 1, 1818. Although he was born in Hungary, his family was of German-Jewish descent origins. Born in Taban, an old Commercial sector in Buda. Being the fith child of a Prosperuous shopkeeper whose origins can be traced back to the 1700’s Century. Semmelweis receive his elementaryeducation a the Catholic Gymnasium of Buda. then between the years 1835 thru 1837 completed his schooling at the University of Pest. At the age of 19, he travel to Vienna in the fall of 1837 to study Law as his father wanted. But shortly after arriving in Vienna, he was attracted to medicine and enroll in Medical school instead of Law school. After completing his first year of studies at Vienna,Semmelweis returned to Pest and continued at the local university during the academic years 1839-1841. The backward conditions in the school, however, caused his return to Vienna in 1841 for further studies at what is known as the Second Vienna Medical School. This school became one of the leading centers for almost a century with its amalgation of laboratory and bedside medicine. During the lasttwo years of the study, Semmelweis came in close contact with three of the most promising figures of the new school, Karl von Rokitansky (1804-1878), Josef Skoda (1805-1881), and Ferdinand von Hebra (1816-1880).
After voluntarily attending seminars led by these teachers, Semmelweis completed his botanically oriented dissertation early in 1844. By the age of twenty-five he received his Doctor’sdegree in the field of Medicine from the University of Vienna in 1844. He remained in Vienna after graduation, repeating a two-month course in practical midwifery and Later on that same year he earned his Masters in Midwifery, receiving a master’s – Magister - degree in the subject. He also completed some surgical training and spent almost fifteen months (October 1844 – February 1846) with Skodalearning diagnostic and statistical methods. Finally Semmelweis applied for the position of assistant in the First Obstetrical Clinic of the university’s teaching institution, The Vienna General Hospital (Wien Allgemeines Krankenhaus).
It was during this time that that Puerperal Fever (Puerperal Sepsis) was the leading cause of meternal death in the Vienna Hospitals. Once he received his Master’sdegree, he applied for and was given the position of Assistant in the Lying in Division of the Vienna General Hospital.
He became the Assistant in obstetrics of the Allgemeine Krankenhaus teaching hospital in Vienna, in 1847. The First Division of the maternity service was under his responsibility and he observed that women delivered by physicians and students had a higher rate of post-delivery...