Hand washing
Hand washing
Description:
During the 19th century, women in childbirth were dying at alarming rates in Europe and the United States. As early as 1843, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes advocated handwashing to prevent childbed fever. Holmes was horrified by the prevalence in American hospitals of the fever, which he believed to be an infectious disease passed to pregnant women by the hands of doctors. In the late 1840's, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis ordered doctors and medical students to wash their hands with a chlorinated solution before examining women in labor. The mortality rate in his maternity wards eventually dropped to less than one percent. There are two lab activities related to hand washing and bacteria.
Education Levels:
9, 10, 11, 12
Subject:
Body Systems And Senses, Death And Dying, Disease, History, Biological And Life Sciences, History, Pharmacology
Resource Type:
Activity
Medium:
Text/HTML
Fee Status:
Free
Beneficiary:
Students
Online provider:
Access Excellence
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