Wash Your Hands

More than a century and a half has passed since the discovery by the great Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis that handwashing prevents disease transmission. And yet, even today, his name is unknown to many medical professionals and his simple but effective mandate is inconsistently followed. Unheeded in life, forgotten after death.

A quote from the excellent review I linked above:

Ignatz Semmelweis, whose story this is, was a pioneer in medical prophylaxis, the innovator of hand-washing and antiseptic solutions for surgeons and obstetricians. Unbelievable as it seems, professors and their students in medical universities went from the dissecting room, where they demonstrated and practiced delivering babies from cadavers, to the Lying In rooms where they examined women about to give birth — all without washing or disinfecting their hands. A gratuitous rubbing of their bloody hands on their lab coats was considered ample readiness, and in fact the presence of bloody matter on their coats was deemed almost a badge of honor. Semmelweis turned that all around in a revolution that was to save millions of new mothers' lives all over the world. Did the majority of the doctors take kindly to removing their "badges of honor" for the sake of saving lives? One would think so, and one would be very wrong.

There are many lessons we can learn from this man's remarkable story. But it seems we still haven't learned the most important one of all: wash your hands.