"The contagiousness of childbed fever":  a short history of puerperal sepsis and its treatment

De Costa, Caroline M

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb05004.x

Topics

History and humanities

Infectious diseases

Women's health

The death of a friend solved a centuries-old, oft-fatal mystery

My doctrine is produced in order to banish the terror from lying-in hospitals, to preserve the wife to the husband, and the mother to the child... — Ignaz Semmelweis, 1861

Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Cairns Base Hospital, Cairns, QLD.

Correspondence: Carolinedec@hotkey.net.au

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank Dr John Doherty of Vienna for assistance in preparing this article.

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