Semmelweis (redirected from Ignaz Semmelweis)

Semmelweis [sem´el-vīs]

Ignaz Philipp (1818–1865). Hungarian physician and pioneer of antisepsis in obstetrics. He was born at Buda and educated at the universities of Pest and Vienna. As assistant in an obstetrics ward of Allgemeines Krankenhaus in Vienna, where the mortality rate from puerperal fever was extremely high, Semmelweis recognized that the infection was carried from patient to patient by the physicians, and he instituted preventive measures, such as cleansing of the physicians' hands with chlorinated lime. He met such fierce opposition from many of his colleagues that he left Vienna and returned to Pest to work as a physician in a maternity department.