Google, on Friday, March 20, honoured the Hungarian physician, Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, through its attractive doodle video. Semmelweis was a doctor and is widely attributed as the first person to discover the medical benefits of handwashing. With the coronavirus pandemic being scathingly dangerous and wide-spreading, hand washing and social distancing are regarded as the best preventive measures of the viral infection.
Semmelweis and the COVID-19 scare
In light of COVID-19 scare, Google, through its doodle video for the day celebrates this greatly forgotten figure. The doodle displays a video of how properly our hands must be washed with Semmelweis maintaining a timer. The day is commemorated as the day Semmelweis was honoured and appointed as the Chief Resident in the maternity clinic of the Vienna General Hospital in 1847. While working at the hospital, Semmelweis had concluded that the doctors must wash their hands frequently so as to avoid the risk of transmitting the diseases.
Born in Budapest in 1818, Semmelweis received a doctorate from the University of Vienna and a master's degree in midwifery. His path break in the career occurred with the research on finding out the source of the Childbed Fever that wreaked havoc causing high mortality rates in new mothers in maternity wards across Europe.
Semmelweis discovered that the infections were passed on from the doctors – after the surgeries they conduct- to patients through their hands. Semmelweis thus insisted on doctors and medical staff on the necessity of handwashing, following which the infections reduced drastically.
The father of infection control
Semmelweis's discovery and emphasis on handwashing is widely reiterated currently due to the novel coronavirus spread. All the leading health organisations, public figures, and officials have come up with innovative video and post to keep the people aware of the necessity of following strict personal hygienic patterns.
"The father of infection control, credited with revolutionising not just obstetrics, but the medical field itself, informing generations beyond his won that hand washing is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of diseases," writes the Google Doodle.
Check out the Google Doodle here:
