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Lindsey Fitzharris tells the story of Ignaz Semmelweiss, the hand washer. In a world that had no understanding of germs, he tried to apply science to halt the spread of infection. Ignaz Semmelweis observed that many young medical students at his hospital in Vienna went directly from an autopsy, still covered in contaminated dead flesh, to attend pregnant women. Could this be the reason for such high maternal mortality rates from conditions like puerperal fever? Believing that the disease was caused by 鈥渋nfective material鈥� from a dead body, Semmelweiss set up a basin filled with chlorinated lime solution in his hospital and began saving women鈥檚 lives with three simple words: 鈥榳ash your hands鈥�. He was demonised by his colleagues for his efforts, but today, he is known as the 鈥淪aviour of Mothers.鈥�

Lindsey Fitzharris discusses some of the common myths surrounding the story of Semmelweiss with Dr Barron H. Lerner of New York University Langone School of Medicine. And she talks to Professor Val Curtis, Director of the Environmental Health Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who has studied the amount of hand washing by medical staff in hospitals today.

Main Image: Lindsey Fitzharris Credit: T. K. Smith