When one of his colleague of Semmelweis died from an infection after accidentally cutting himself Semmelweis came up with the theory that infectious particles of some sort caused these diseases.

 Semmelweis’s recommendations were not accepted by other doctors at the time, so he made some professional enemies. The doctors were jealous and probably frightened.Besides this new concept was foreign their belief system.

 Any doctor who supported Semmelweis's ideas was in danger of losing his own job.Doctors were upset because Semmelweis' hypothesis made it look like they were the ones giving childbed fever to the women.He was eventually fired from his job at the hospital because of his insistence on handwashing, against the orders of his superior. 

 Semmelweis saved the lives of countless women and their newborn children. He showed how a statistical approach to the problems of medicine could demolish popular but mystical theories of disease. His work prepared the way for Pasteur’s elucidation of germ theory. He turned obstetrics into a respectable science.

 It took many years for doctors to become convinced of the necessity for cleanliness.  What Semmelweis had discovered is something that still holds true today: Hand-washing is one of the most important tools in public healtth. But we must never forget how long and hard he had to fight for his ideas.

 What Ignaz Semmelweis discovered is still one of the easiest disease- and infection-control methods known.

 Semmelweis did not manage to convince his peers to his findings. He died a miserable death in an asylum.

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