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Updated: Jun 20, 2025

A Method to Test the Efficacy of Handwashing for the Removal of Emerging Infectious Pathogens
Published on: June 7, 2017
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865), Joseph Lister (1827-1912) and the Link Between Their Works
Theocharis Lepenos1, Despina Sanoudou2, Athanase Protogerou3
1History of Medicine and Medical Ethics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine, Amfikleia, GRC.
Abstract:
Infection control remains a significant burden for healthcare systems. The irrational use of antibiotics in the fight against microbial diseases has led to the fast development of antimicrobial resistance. Considering how the latter can adversely influence the effectiveness of modern treatments and the way medicine is practiced, we should revise the events that led to the establishment of the general principles of antisepsis and pay special tribute to the people who contributed to their formation, bearing in mind that they remain unmodified to a great extent until today. Without Semmelweis' conceptualization of the idea of direct transmission of sepsis, Pasteur's emblematic figure that helped promote the idea even further, and Lister's methodology structuring, the scientific community would have significantly delayed winning the battle against germs.
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