The Origins and Organizations of the Healthcare
Hygiene and Sanitation
Who was Ignaz Semmelweis?
● Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian doctor working in Vienna
General Hospital. He is known as the father of hand hygiene.
● He discovered that the cause of puerperal (childbed) fever was
students carrying the infection from mothers who had died from the
disease directly to healthy mothers.
● He ordered the students to wash their hands in a solution of
chlorinated lime before attending to different mothers, and this
caused the death rate of mothers to drop from this specific infection.
From August 1848, no women died in childbirth within his division.
Who was Florence Nightingale?
● Florence was a nurse during the Crimean War who attended to
wounded or sick soldiers in battle. She is known as the lady with a
lamp.
● Florence analysed large amounts of army data and discovered that
16,000 out of the 18,000 deaths were not because of battle wounds
but preventable diseases, spread by poor sanitation.
● Florence educated the other nurses to clean their areas and wash their
hands more often. This led to improved conditions and taught us the
best ways to stop the spread of disease.
Hygiene and Sanitation
Who was Ignaz Semmelweis?
● Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian doctor working in Vienna
General Hospital. He is known as the father of hand hygiene.
● He discovered that the cause of puerperal (childbed) fever was
students carrying the infection from mothers who had died from the
disease directly to healthy mothers.
● He ordered the students to wash their hands in a solution of
chlorinated lime before attending to different mothers, and this
caused the death rate of mothers to drop from this specific infection.
From August 1848, no women died in childbirth within his division.
Who was Florence Nightingale?
● Florence was a nurse during the Crimean War who attended to
wounded or sick soldiers in battle. She is known as the lady with a
lamp.
● Florence analysed large amounts of army data and discovered that
16,000 out of the 18,000 deaths were not because of battle wounds
but preventable diseases, spread by poor sanitation.
● Florence educated the other nurses to clean their areas and wash their
hands more often. This led to improved conditions and taught us the
best ways to stop the spread of disease.
