Semmelweis & Hand-washing (Questions & Answers) Rated 100% Correct!!

Explain what is meant by a nosocomial infection - Answer--When a patient is infected in the hospital with something that they had not gone to the hospital for. -5% to 10% of patients in acute care hospitals acquire nosocomial infections. Semmelweis Hypothesis - Answer-1. Semmelweis noticed a link between those who performed autopsies and handled children and women to those who only handled children and women. • Hypothesis: Childbed fever was caused by 'cadaverous particles' or 'morbid matter' transmitted from the hands of doctors and medical students to the obstetrics ward. And introducing more meticulous hand hygiene in Division I could reduce maternal mortality rates from childbed fever. Semmelweis Hypothesis Test - Answer-Semmelweis insisted that all medical students and physicians should clean their hands with a chlorine and lime solution before attending to any patient in the clinic. Semmelweis Test Results - Answer-Mortality rates in division 1 dropped to be equal with devision 2 for the first time. Semmelweis Conflict - Answer-1. Professor Klein and others believed Semmelweis's observations were in conflict with the prevailing miasmatic hypothesis of disease. That the decline in mortality rates could be due to the new ventilation system. 2. Semmelweis failed to publish his work until 13 years after his discovery and his work was badly written 3. Doctors were reluctant to admit that they were actually responsible for the deaths of many patients that were under their care. 4. The lack of indoor plumbing at the time making it difficult to obtain access to fresh water. The practice of hand-washing would also have been somewhat inconvenient for doctors and medical students at the time. 5. He was a Hungarian in Austria at the time of a xenophobic backlash in Europe.