Ignaz Semmelweis

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/ignaz-semmelweis

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Ignaz Semmelweis born?July 1, 1818
2. Where was Ignaz Semmelweis born?Buda, Hungary
3. When did Ignaz Semmelweis die?August 13, 1865 (age 47)
4. What is the career?Physician at Vienna General Hospital, focusing on obstetrics
5. What did Ignaz Semmelweis discover about hand washing?He found that washing hands with a chlorinated lime solution before seeing mothers cut the death rate from 18% to just 2%.
6. Why were mothers dying in hospitals before Semmelweis?They were getting a serious sickness called childbed fever after giving birth, which could be deadly.

Puerperal Fever: A severe and often fatal bacterial infection of the reproductive tract occurring after childbirth.
Antiseptic Procedures: Medical techniques aimed at preventing infection by eliminating or inhibiting the growth of microorganisms.
Maternal Mortality Rate: The number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Germ Theory of Disease: The scientific principle that specific microscopic organisms are the cause of many diseases.