Today, I would like to remember Ignaz Semmelweis (1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865)
[[ it would be interesting to get all different child birth stories from all other cultures, languages, beliefs and geographic locations ]]
The wisdom of plagues : lessons from 25 years of covering pandemics
written by Donald G. McNeil Jr., [2024]
pp.174─175
Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis
Everyone who has studied medicine has heard the story of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis: a senior obstetrician at the prestigious Vienna general hospital. The hospital had two birth wards, one run by midwives and one by doctors and medical students. Women in the dcotors' ward were three times as likely to die of “childbed fever” as those in the midwifery ward. The doctors often came to their ward straight from dissecting corpses in the autopsy room. Germs were still unknown, but Dr. Semmelweis deduced that his students were carrying some sort of “morbid poison” from the corpses to their patients, and in 1847 he began requiring them to wash their hands with clorinated water. Deaths in the medical ward plummeted. However, other doctors were infuriated by his implication that their unsanitary habits had killed hundreds of their patients, and some mocked him. Dr. Semmelweis, who was erratic and prickly, flung insulting letters back until he lost his post and subsequent one in Budapest. His mental health failed, and he died in an asylum at age forty-seven [47] after being beaten by its guards.
Semmelweis, of course, was right. Self-proclaimed Semmelweises, not so much.
( McNeil, Donald G., Jr., author.
The wisdom of plagues : lessons from 25 years of covering pandemics / Donald G. McNeil JR.
hardcover edition
Simon & chuster, 2024.
includes bibliographical references and index.
(print)
(ebook)
(hardcover)
subject: epidemiology. | pandemic. | public health surveillance. | public health──united states. | cyac : covid-19 (disease)
614.4──dc23
)
____________________________________
Games people play : the basic handbook of transactional analysis
written by Eric Berne, M.D.
copyright 1964
copyright renewed 1992
with new introduction
written by James R. Allen, M.D.
p.39-40
In borderline cases it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between a procedure and a ritual. The tendency is for the layman to call professional procedures rituals, while actually every transaction may be based on sound, even vital experience, but the layman does not have the background to appreciate that. Conversely, there is a tendency for professional to rationalize ritualistic elements that still cling to their procedures, and to dismiss skeptical laymen on the ground that they are not equipped to understand. And one of the ways in which entrenched professionals may resist the introduction of sound new procedures is by laughing them off as rituals. Hence the fate of Semmelweis and other innovators.
p.40
The essential and similar feature of both procedures and rituals is that they are stereotyped. Once the first transaction has been initiated, the whole series is predictable and follows a predetermined course to a foreordained conclusion unless special conditions arise. The difference between them lies in the origin of the predetermination: procedure are programmed by the Adult and rituals are Parentally patterned.
Individuals who are not comfortable or adept with rituals sometimes evade them by substituting procedures. They can be found, for example, among people who like to help the hostess with preparing or serving food and drink at parties.
Games people play : the basic handbook of transactional analysis
written by Eric Berne, M.D.
copyright 1964
copyright renewed 1992
____________________________________
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (German: [ˈɪɡnaːts ˈzɛml̩vaɪs]; Hungarian: Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp [ˈsɛmmɛlvɛjs ˈiɡnaːts ˈfyløp]; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist of German descent who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures and was described as the "saviour of mothers".[2] Postpartum infection, also known as puerperal fever or childbed fever, consists of any bacterial infection of the reproductive tract following birth and in the 19th century was common and often fatal. Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of infection could be drastically reduced by requiring healthcare workers in obstetrical clinics to disinfect their hands. In 1847, he proposed hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions at Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of midwives' wards.[3] The maternal mortality rate dropped from 18% to less than 2%, and he published a book of his findings, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever, in 1861.
Despite his research, Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. He could offer no theoretical explanation for his findings of reduced mortality due to hand-washing, and some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and mocked him for it. In 1865, the increasingly outspoken Semmelweis allegedly suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum by his colleagues. In the asylum, he was beaten by the guards. He died 14 days later from a gangrenous wound on his right hand that may have been caused by the beating.[4]
His findings earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory, giving Semmelweis' observations a theoretical explanation, and Joseph Lister, acting on Pasteur's research, practised and operated using hygienic methods with great success.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
____________________________________
Quick Facts
In full:
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis or
Hungarian form:
Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp
Born:
July 1, 1818, Buda, Hungary, Austrian Empire [now Budapest, Hungary]
Died:
August 13, 1865, Vienna, Austria (aged 47)
Subjects Of Study:
antiseptic
preventive medicine
puerperal fever
Ignaz Semmelweis (born July 1, 1818, Buda, Hungary, Austrian Empire [now Budapest, Hungary]—died August 13, 1865, Vienna, Austria) was a Hungarian physician who discovered the cause of puerperal (childbed) fever and introduced antisepsis into medical practice.
Educated at the universities of Pest and Vienna, Semmelweis received his doctor’s degree from Vienna in 1844 and was appointed assistant at the obstetric clinic in Vienna. He soon became involved in the problem of puerperal infection, the scourge of maternity hospitals throughout Europe. Although most women delivered at home, those who had to seek hospitalization because of poverty, illegitimacy, or obstetrical complications faced mortality rates ranging as high as 25–30 percent. Some thought that the infection was induced by overcrowding, poor ventilation, the onset of lactation, or miasma. Semmelweis proceeded to investigate its cause over the strong objections of his chief, who, like other continental physicians, had reconciled himself to the idea that the disease was unpreventable.
Semmelweis observed that, among women in the first division of the clinic, the death rate from childbed fever was two or three times as high as among those in the second division, although the two divisions were identical with the exception that students were taught in the first and midwives in the second. He put forward the thesis that perhaps the students carried something to the patients they examined during labour. The death of a friend from a wound infection incurred during the examination of a woman who died of puerperal infection and the similarity of the findings in the two cases gave support to his reasoning. He concluded that students who came directly from the dissecting room to the maternity ward carried the infection from mothers who had died of the disease to healthy mothers. He ordered the students to wash their hands in a solution of chlorinated lime before each examination.
Under these procedures, the mortality rates in the first division dropped from 18.27 to 1.27 percent, and in March and August of 1848 no woman died in childbirth in his division. The younger medical men in Vienna recognized the significance of Semmelweis’s discovery and gave him all possible assistance. His superior, on the other hand, was critical—not because he wanted to oppose him but because he failed to understand him.
In the year 1848 a liberal political revolution swept Europe, and Semmelweis took part in the events in Vienna. After the revolution had been put down, Semmelweis found that his political activities had increased the obstacles to his professional work. In 1849 he was dropped from his post at the clinic. He then applied for a teaching post at the university in midwifery but was turned down. Soon after that, he gave a successful lecture at the Medical Society of Vienna entitled “The Origin of Puerperal Fever.” At the same time, he applied once more for the teaching post, but, although he received it, there were restrictions attached to it that he considered humiliating. He left Vienna and returned to Pest in 1850.
He worked for the next six years at the St. Rochus Hospital in Pest. An epidemic of puerperal fever had broken out in the obstetrics department, and, at his request, Semmelweis was put in charge of the department. His measures promptly reduced the mortality rate, and in his years there it averaged only 0.85 percent. In Prague and Vienna, meantime, the rate was still from 10 to 15 percent.
In 1855 he was appointed professor of obstetrics at the University of Pest. He married, had five children, and developed his private practice. His ideas were accepted in Hungary, and the government addressed a circular to all district authorities ordering the introduction of the prophylactic methods of Semmelweis. In 1857 he declined the chair of obstetrics at the University of Zürich. Vienna remained hostile toward him, and the editor of the Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift wrote that it was time to stop the nonsense about the chlorine hand wash.
In 1861 Semmelweis published his principal work, Die Ätiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers (The Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever). He sent it to all the prominent obstetricians and medical societies abroad, but the general reaction was adverse. The weight of authority stood against his teachings. He addressed several open letters to professors of medicine in other countries but to little effect. His letters grew increasingly offensive, with expressions of anger, frustration, and bitterness. At a conference of German physicians and natural scientists, most of the speakers—including the pathologist Rudolf Virchow—rejected his doctrine.
From 1861 onward Semmelweis’s mental health deteriorated. The years of controversy had gradually undermined his spirit, and he suffered bouts of severe depression. By 1865 his behaviour had become increasingly erratic, possibly because of dementia or advanced syphilis. His colleagues eventually enticed him to visit a mental institution, whereupon Semmelweis, realizing his colleagues’ intent, protested and attempted to leave but was taken in by the guards. He was beaten severely, placed under confinement, and subjected to treatments with castor oil. He died two weeks into his detention at the asylum. Ironically, his illness and death were caused by the infection of a wound on his right hand, possibly acquired when he was beaten by the guards. An autopsy revealed that he had died of the same disease against which he had struggled all his professional life.
Semmelweis’s doctrine was subsequently accepted by medical science. His influence on the development of knowledge and control of infection was hailed by Joseph Lister, the father of modern antisepsis: “I think with the greatest admiration of him and his achievement and it fills me with joy that at last he is given the respect due to him.”
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ignaz-Semmelweis
____________________________________
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis_reflex
The Semmelweis reflex or "Semmelweis effect" is a metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs, or paradigms.[1]
Origins and historical context
The term derives from the name of Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician who discovered in 1847 that childbed fever mortality rates fell ten-fold when doctors disinfected their hands with a chlorine solution before moving from one patient to another, or, most particularly, after an autopsy. (At one of the two maternity wards at the university hospital where Semmelweis worked, physicians performed autopsies on every deceased patient.) Semmelweis's procedure saved many lives by stopping the ongoing contamination of patients (mostly pregnant women) with what he termed "cadaverous particles", twenty years before germ theory was discovered.[2] Despite the overwhelming empirical evidence, his fellow doctors rejected his hand-washing suggestions, often for non-medical reasons. For instance, some doctors refused to believe that a gentleman's hands could transmit disease.[3]
While there is uncertainty regarding its origin and generally accepted use, the expression "Semmelweis Reflex" had been used by the author Robert Anton Wilson.[4] In Wilson's book The Game of Life, Timothy Leary provided the following polemical definition of the Semmelweis reflex: "Mob behavior found among primates and larval hominids on undeveloped planets, in which a discovery of important scientific fact is punished".[citation needed]
In the preface to the fiftieth anniversary edition of his book The Myth of Mental Illness, Thomas Szasz says that Semmelweis's biography impressed upon him at a young age, a "deep sense of the invincible social power of false truths."[5]
Modern examples
The transmission of Covid-19
Semmelweis reflex is often seen as an age-old bias, but it persists in modern times, as illustrated by the delayed recognition of COVID-19's airborne transmission. Despite some evidence indicating aerosol spread, the focus of WHO was primarily on droplet transmission because almost all infectious diseases are spread through droplets. It wasn’t until December 2021 that the WHO officially recognised airborne transmission, which shows the challenge of shifting entrenched beliefs, especially when the prevailing understanding aligns with established norms. Integrating innovative perspectives swiftly in existing frameworks poses a significant challenge. As the epidemiologist Christopher Dye says, “What the WHO says is normally based on a consensus of expert advice and opinion.”[16]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis_reflex
____________________________________
·‘’•─“”
<------------------------------------------------------------------------>
πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ,ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ,ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα
____________________________________
*2 “This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.”
──From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations
(Ackoff's best : his classic writings on management, Russell L. Ackoff., © 1999, hardcover, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., p.139)
“This [copy & paste reference note] is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is [archive] with the understanding that the [researcher, investigator] is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.”
──From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations
--
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher.
The W. Edwards Deming Institute. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States copyright act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means ── electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other ── without written permission from the publisher.
The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowlege. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information.
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., section 107, some material is provided without permission from the copyright owner, only for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of federal copyright laws. These materials may not be distributed further, except for "fair use," without permission of the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
notice: Do not purchase this book with the hopes of curing cancer or any other chronic disease
We offer it for informative purposes to help cope with health situations and do not claim this book furnishes information as to an effective treatment or cure of the disease discussed ─ according to currently accepted medical opinion.
Although it is your right to adopt your own dietary and treating pattern, never the less suggestions offered in this book should not be applied to a specific individual except by his or her doctor who would be familiar with individual requirements and any possible complication. Never attempt a lengthy fast without competent professional supervision.
the home health handbook makes every effort to insure that its information is medically accurate and up-to-date. However, the information contained in this handbook is intended to complement, not substitute for, the advice of your own physician. Before embarking on any medical treatment or changing your present program, you should consult with your doctor, who can discuss your individual needs, symptoms and treatment.
<------------------------------------------------------------------------>
πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ,ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ,ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα
____________________________________
*2 “This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.”
──From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations
(Ackoff's best : his classic writings on management, Russell L. Ackoff., © 1999, hardcover, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., p.139)
“This [copy & paste reference note] is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is [archive] with the understanding that the [researcher, investigator] is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.”
──From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations
--
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher.
The W. Edwards Deming Institute. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States copyright act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means ── electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other ── without written permission from the publisher.
The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowlege. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information.
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., section 107, some material is provided without permission from the copyright owner, only for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of federal copyright laws. These materials may not be distributed further, except for "fair use," without permission of the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
notice: Do not purchase this book with the hopes of curing cancer or any other chronic disease
We offer it for informative purposes to help cope with health situations and do not claim this book furnishes information as to an effective treatment or cure of the disease discussed ─ according to currently accepted medical opinion.
Although it is your right to adopt your own dietary and treating pattern, never the less suggestions offered in this book should not be applied to a specific individual except by his or her doctor who would be familiar with individual requirements and any possible complication. Never attempt a lengthy fast without competent professional supervision.
the home health handbook makes every effort to insure that its information is medically accurate and up-to-date. However, the information contained in this handbook is intended to complement, not substitute for, the advice of your own physician. Before embarking on any medical treatment or changing your present program, you should consult with your doctor, who can discuss your individual needs, symptoms and treatment.
No comments:
Post a Comment