Wash you hands!!!

Until the 19th century doctors didn't take care about washing their hands.

Ignaz Semmelweis hypothesised: cadaverous particles on the hands of doctors were making their way into women’s bodies during childbirth.

experiment

Without washing hands the mortality of new mothers=18%

With washing hands the mortality of nem mothers=1%

BUT!!

The doctors in Vienna at this time were from middle- or upper-class families, and they thought of themselves as very clean people

They thought that he was insulting them when he said their hands could be dirty.

Over the next 40 years the importance of understandig the germs developed

1857

Louis Pasteur, of pasteurisation fame, raised awareness of pathogens, and how to kill them with heat.

1876

Robert Koch discovered the anthrax bacillus, kicking off the new research field of medical bacteriology.

Doctors started handwashing before surgeries and between 2 medical process. Handwashing moved from being something doctors did to something everybody had been told to do .

Cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria and typhoid bacilli were subsequently identified.

The anti-tuberculosis movement was aimed at both adults and schoolchildren.

People got phobic about physical contacts. So they created a hygiene centric area

Florence Nightingale improved hygiene in military hospitals during the Crimean war and also influenced a new interest in household cleaning

the development of vaccines and antibiotics in the early 20th centur

A laxity crept in, hygiene didn't recieve as much importance anymore.

Sexually transmitted diseases started increasing again in the 1970s.

HIV coming in the 1980s

Everyone started to get hyper again about personal cleanliness. Even though HIV is transmitted by blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk

BUT the importance of handwashing was still low.

Serious reserches were made about hand washing.

After urinating, 69% of women washed their hands, and only 43% of men.

After defecation, 84% of women and 78% of men washed their hands.

Before eating 10% of men and 7% of women washed their hands.

ICUs had an overall compliance rate of just 54%.

Staff in the paediatric ICU were with 90% compliance.

How effective is handwashing?

2018

Petra Klepac looked into this question.

if you washed your hands five to 10 times more than usual, “that would reduce your risk by a quarter”.

WASH YOUR

HANDS!!