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SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and the Teaching of Ignaz Semmelweis and Florence Nightingale: a Lesson of Public Health from History, after the “Introduction of Handwashing” (1847)

Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis (1818-1865) and Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) were two important personalities in the history of medicine and public health. They dealt with the problem of handwashing. Semmelweis is also known as the “father of hand hygiene”; just in 1847 he discovered the etiology and pro...

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Autores principales: MARTINI, MARIANO, LIPPI, DONATELLA
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Pacini Editore Srl 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8639136/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34909488
http://dx.doi.org/10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2021.62.3.2161
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author MARTINI, MARIANO
LIPPI, DONATELLA
author_facet MARTINI, MARIANO
LIPPI, DONATELLA
author_sort MARTINI, MARIANO
collection PubMed
description Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis (1818-1865) and Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) were two important personalities in the history of medicine and public health. They dealt with the problem of handwashing. Semmelweis is also known as the “father of hand hygiene”; just in 1847 he discovered the etiology and prophylaxis of puerperal sepsis and imposed a new rule mandating handwashing with chlorine for doctors. He also tried to persuade European scientific community of the advantages of handwashing. During the Crimean War, in Scutary (Turkey), Florence Nightingale strengthened handwashing and other hygiene practices in the war hospital where she worked and her handwashing practices reached a reductions in infections. Unfortunately the hygiene practices promoted by Semmelweis and Nightingale were not widely adopted. In general handwashing promotion stood still for over a century. During current pandemic SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) one of the most important way to prevent the spread of the virus is still to wash the hands frequently.
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spelling pubmed-86391362021-12-13 SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and the Teaching of Ignaz Semmelweis and Florence Nightingale: a Lesson of Public Health from History, after the “Introduction of Handwashing” (1847) MARTINI, MARIANO LIPPI, DONATELLA J Prev Med Hyg Review Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis (1818-1865) and Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) were two important personalities in the history of medicine and public health. They dealt with the problem of handwashing. Semmelweis is also known as the “father of hand hygiene”; just in 1847 he discovered the etiology and prophylaxis of puerperal sepsis and imposed a new rule mandating handwashing with chlorine for doctors. He also tried to persuade European scientific community of the advantages of handwashing. During the Crimean War, in Scutary (Turkey), Florence Nightingale strengthened handwashing and other hygiene practices in the war hospital where she worked and her handwashing practices reached a reductions in infections. Unfortunately the hygiene practices promoted by Semmelweis and Nightingale were not widely adopted. In general handwashing promotion stood still for over a century. During current pandemic SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) one of the most important way to prevent the spread of the virus is still to wash the hands frequently. Pacini Editore Srl 2021-09-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8639136/ /pubmed/34909488 http://dx.doi.org/10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2021.62.3.2161 Text en ©2021 Pacini Editore SRL, Pisa, Italy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the CC-BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International) license. The article can be used by giving appropriate credit and mentioning the license, but only for non-commercial purposes and only in the original version. For further information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en
spellingShingle Review
MARTINI, MARIANO
LIPPI, DONATELLA
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and the Teaching of Ignaz Semmelweis and Florence Nightingale: a Lesson of Public Health from History, after the “Introduction of Handwashing” (1847)
title SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and the Teaching of Ignaz Semmelweis and Florence Nightingale: a Lesson of Public Health from History, after the “Introduction of Handwashing” (1847)
title_full SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and the Teaching of Ignaz Semmelweis and Florence Nightingale: a Lesson of Public Health from History, after the “Introduction of Handwashing” (1847)
title_fullStr SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and the Teaching of Ignaz Semmelweis and Florence Nightingale: a Lesson of Public Health from History, after the “Introduction of Handwashing” (1847)
title_full_unstemmed SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and the Teaching of Ignaz Semmelweis and Florence Nightingale: a Lesson of Public Health from History, after the “Introduction of Handwashing” (1847)
title_short SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and the Teaching of Ignaz Semmelweis and Florence Nightingale: a Lesson of Public Health from History, after the “Introduction of Handwashing” (1847)
title_sort sars-cov-2 (covid-19) and the teaching of ignaz semmelweis and florence nightingale: a lesson of public health from history, after the “introduction of handwashing” (1847)
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8639136/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34909488
http://dx.doi.org/10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2021.62.3.2161
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