The Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever

The Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever PDF Author: Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299093648
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
Semmelweis's exposure to the childbed fever was concurrent with his appointment to the Vienna maternity hospital in 1846. Like many similar hospitals and clinics in the major cities of nineteenth-century Europe and America, where death rates from the illness sometimes climbed as high as 40 percent of admitted patients, the Viennese wards were ravaged by the fever. Intensely troubled by the tragic and baffling loss of so many young mothers, Semmelweis sought answers. The Etiology was testimony to his success. Based on overwhelming personal evidence, it constituted a classic description of a disease, its causes, and its prevention. It also allowed a necessary response to the obstetrician's already vocal, rabid, and perhaps predictable critics. For Semmelweis's central thesis was a startling one - the fever, he correctly surmised, was caused not by epidemic or endemic influences but by unsterilized and thus often contaminated hands of the attending physicians themselves.

The Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever

The Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever PDF Author: Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299093648
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
Semmelweis's exposure to the childbed fever was concurrent with his appointment to the Vienna maternity hospital in 1846. Like many similar hospitals and clinics in the major cities of nineteenth-century Europe and America, where death rates from the illness sometimes climbed as high as 40 percent of admitted patients, the Viennese wards were ravaged by the fever. Intensely troubled by the tragic and baffling loss of so many young mothers, Semmelweis sought answers. The Etiology was testimony to his success. Based on overwhelming personal evidence, it constituted a classic description of a disease, its causes, and its prevention. It also allowed a necessary response to the obstetrician's already vocal, rabid, and perhaps predictable critics. For Semmelweis's central thesis was a startling one - the fever, he correctly surmised, was caused not by epidemic or endemic influences but by unsterilized and thus often contaminated hands of the attending physicians themselves.

Childbed Fever

Childbed Fever PDF Author: K. Codell Carter
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313388385
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of women died each year from childbed fever. The Carters describe birthing conditions and medical practices in Vienna during the time when young Semmelweis began to work in a maternity clinic there. He discovered that childbed fever arose because medical personnel did not wash adequately after dissecting corpses before doing vaginal examinations of women in labor. After he required students to disinfect themselves, the mortality rate immediately dropped. However, Semmelweis's views were not accepted by the senior physicians who believed the disease was due to a variety of causes. After strident attempts to persuade skeptics, Semmelweis was committed to a Viennese insane asylum where he died at age 42, possibly from beatings by asylum guards. Childbed fever, now called puerperal infection, continues to be a leading cause of maternal mortality, in spite of the best efforts of modern physicians.

The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweis (Great Discoveries)

The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweis (Great Discoveries) PDF Author: Sherwin B. Nuland
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039332625X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Get Book Here

Book Description
A narrative of one of the key turning points in medical history.

Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever (Dodo Press)

Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever (Dodo Press) PDF Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781409961918
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 48

Get Book Here

Book Description
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., (1809-1894) was a physician by profession but achieved fame as a writer. He was one of the best regarded American poets of the 19th century. In 1833 Holmes attended the famed Ecole de Medecine in Paris. He pursued his medical studies in the Parisian hospital system. He first attained national prominence with his poem Old Ironsides. One of his most popular works was The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1857). He was one of the five members of the group known as the Fireside Poets. He contributed poems and essays to the Atlantic Monthly from its inception, and also published novels. Holmes is also known for his writing of several beautiful hymns. In 1846, Holmes coined the word anesthesia. He also developed the popular model of the stereoscope. Amongst his other works are Elsie Venner (1861), The Guardian Angel (1867), The Poet at the Breakfast-Table (1872), John Lothrop Motley: A Memoir (1879), Medical Essays (1883), A Mortal Antipathy: First Opening of the New Portfolio (1885) and Over the Teacups (1891).

The Cause, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever

The Cause, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever PDF Author: Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Children
Languages : en
Pages : 442

Get Book Here

Book Description


Genius Belabored

Genius Belabored PDF Author: Theodore G. Obenchain
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817319298
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Get Book Here

Book Description
The fascinating story of Ignaz Semmelweis, a nineteenth-century obstetrician ostracized for his strident advocacy of disinfection as a way to prevent childbed fever In Genius Belabored: Childbed Fever and the Tragic Life of Ignaz Semmelweis, Theodore G. Obenchain traces the life story of a nineteenth-century Hungarian obstetrician who was shunned and marginalized by the medical establishment for advancing a far-sighted but unorthodox solution to the appalling mortality rates that plagued new mothers of the day. In engrossing detail, Obenchain recreates for readers the sights, smells, and activities within a hospital of that day. In an era before the acceptance of modern germ science, physicians saw little need for cleanliness or hygiene. As a consequence, antiseptic measures were lax and rudimentary. Especially vulnerable to contamination were new mothers, who frequently contracted and died from childbed fever (puerperal fever). Genius Belabored follows Semmelweis’s awakening to the insight that many of these deaths could be avoided with basic antiseptic measures like hand washing. The medical establishment, intellectually unprepared for Semmelweis’s prescient hypothesis, rejected it for a number of reasons. It was unorthodox and went against the lingering Christian tradition that the dangers of childbirth were inherent to the lives of women. Complicating matters, colleagues did not consider Semmelweis an easy physician to work with. His peers described him as strange and eccentric. Obenchain offers an empathetic and insightful argument that Semmelweis suffered from bipolar disorder and illuminates how his colleagues, however dedicated to empirical science they might have been, misjudged Semmelweis’s methods based upon ignorance and their emotional discomfort with him. In Genius Belabored, Obenchain identifies Semmelweis’s rightful place in the pantheon of scientists and physicians whose discoveries have saved the lives of millions. Obenchain’s biography of Semmelweis offers unique insights into the practice of medicine and the mindsets of physicians working in the premodern era. This fascinating study offers much of interest to general readers as well as those interested in germ theory, the history of medicine and obstetrics, or anyone wishing to better understand the trajectory of modern medicine.

Concepts of Epidemiology

Concepts of Epidemiology PDF Author: Raj S. Bhopal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198739680
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Get Book Here

Book Description
First edition published in 2002. Second edition published in 2008.

Germ Theory

Germ Theory PDF Author: Robert P. Gaynes
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 155581722X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book Here

Book Description
Named as Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2012 From Hippocrates to Lillian Wald—the stories of scientists whose work changed the way we think about and treat infection. Describes the genesis of the germ theory of disease by a dozen seminal thinkers such as Jenner, Lister, and Ehrlich. Presents the "inside stories" of these pioneers' struggles to have their work accepted, which can inform strategies for tackling current crises in infectious diseases and motivate and support today's scientists. Relevant to anyone interested in microbiology, infectious disease, or how medical discoveries shape our modern understanding

Case Studies in Public Health

Case Studies in Public Health PDF Author: Theodore H. Tulchinsky
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128045868
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 605

Get Book Here

Book Description
Case Studies in Public Health contains selected case studies of some of the most important and influential moments in medicine and epidemiology. The cases chosen for this collection represent a wide array of public health issues that go into the makeup of what can be termed the New Public Health (NPH), which includes traditional public health, such as sanitation, hygiene and infectious disease control, but widens its perspective to include the organization, financing and quality of health care services in a much broader sense. Each case study is presented in a systematic fashion to facilitate learning, with the case, background, current relevance, economic issues, ethical issues, conclusions, recommendation and references discussed for each case. The book is a valuable resource for advanced students and researchers with specialized knowledge who need further information on the general background and history of public health and important scientific discoveries within the field. It is an ideal resource for students in public health, epidemiology, medicine, anthropology, and sociology, and for those interested in how to apply lessons from the past to present and future research. - Explores the history of public health through important scientific events and flashpoints - Presents case studies in a clear, direct style that is easy to follow - Uses a systematic approach to help learn lessons from the past and apply them to the present

Basic Microbiology and Infection Control for Midwives

Basic Microbiology and Infection Control for Midwives PDF Author: Elisabeth Presterl
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030020266
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 207

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book provides an evidence-based, practical approach to the diagnosis and treatment of the most frequent fungal infections in a general hospital. It offers a comprehensive overview of the basic medical and scientific background of fungal infections and carefully explains and discusses epidemiology, pathogenesis, and clinical presentation. Readers will acquire a good and clear perception of invasive fungal infections, including diagnosis and treatment. This user-friendly resource not only serves as a valuable tool in clinical management, but also provides the basis for further research questions and studies in this particular field. It will be a useful companion for midwives as well as for doctors, medical and pharmacy students, nurses and other healthcare professionals.