.
How do you wash your hands properly? Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis shows us. A few days ago Google paid tribute to the Hungarian doctor by dedicating to him a Doodle reminding us how to do it.
Maybe not everyone knows that it was actually Dr. Semmelweis who discovered the medical benefits of this practice while working in the maternity ward of a hospital in Vienna.
In the mid-19th century, in fact, he noted that puerperal fever could be drastically reduced by disinfecting hands with chloride of lime.
The doctors were in fact inadvertently infecting these women with bacteria from other patients.
Thanks to Dr. Semmelweis' insight, deaths reached a minimal percentage, about 1%, starting in 1847.
At a time like this, when the whole world is committed to eradicating Covid-19, washing hands often represents a daily act, taken for granted by many, that allows for increased hygiene and prevention.
Here is the video from the World Health Organization.
#safehandschallange