Tag: handwashing
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Can behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia salvage Semmelweis?
Faraze A. Niazi Jack E. Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, United States Ignaz Semmelweis. 1818 – 1865. Age 47 years at death. Via Wikimedia. Remember me for the mind I had; not the mind a disease created. Few physicians have made a more significant observation than did Ignaz Semmelweis.1 In 1847 he took over two…
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Washing our hands
Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece Winter Sunshine, Halkidiki, Greece. Photo by the author Ever since Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, washed his hands before condemning Jesus Christ to death by crucifixion, this simple act of personal sanitation has been used as the figurative icon of a disclaimer, the denial of responsibility. Today, in…
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Lajos Markusovszky: Semmelweis’s best friend
Constance Putnam Concord, Massachusetts, United States Bust of Lajos Markusovszky, in the inner garden of Semmelweis Medical University, Budapest. Photo by Attila Kovács, by kind permission. The name “Ignaz Semmelweis” is at least vaguely familiar to many people, even if they need reminding that he was “the hand-washing guy.” He was the first fully…