We know today that washing hands is good practice. They even have a proscribed method of how to properly scrub up before a procedure. Sadly this wasn't always the case. In the early days of 'modern' medicine pelvic inflammatory disease was at near epidemic proportions among women having children in hospitals. It was so severe that the mortality rate was extremely high. Many mothers lost their lives in child birth due to this man made malady. Oddly the women who were having kids at home with a midwife were not having this problem.
Midwives were in the practice of washing their hands before assisting their maternal patrons. Believe it or not the activity was scoffed at as a quaint but useless activity by the medical elite. Yet it was the patients of the 'modern' doctor who were suffering the ravages of pelvic inflammatory disease.
Around 1900 a doctor by the name of Seimelweisse observed a midwife in action and took note of the habit of washing there hands often during the birthing process. He also noted that they would take the time to wash their hands with soap and water between each patient if they were dealing with more than one birth at any given moment. It was then he asked how many of their patients suffer from pelvis inflammation. When they answered him with a low number of incidents he was astonished.
Taking this new insight to heart he put it into practice and discovered that his rate of pelvic inflammatory disease decreased by 70%. when he used soap and warm water the number increased to 80%. He wrote a book and had it published. Instead of being lauded for his insightful wisdom and magnificent achievement he was systematically run out of his social clubs and ridiculed by his peers, for challenging the accepted wisdom of the times.
Dr. Seimelweiss died broke and insane for daring to challenge the mutton chopped elitists belief that they were perfect in their thinking.
Hmmm.. Does this sound familiar?
How dare those awful uneducated quack chiropractors say we are killing anyone??? But why are out malpractice premiums so high and why do we have to hide the mortality rates of our hospitals from public view?
Quiet..we aren't concerned with facts...just pretenses. JAMA.
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