Puerperal fever
From Ganfyd
The really feared complication of pregnancy caused mainly by the streptococcus usually transmitted by birth attendants. History shows that the vast majority of neither midwives or doctors reacted appropriately to well documented discovery as early as 1773 and again even more convincingly in 1795 of hand washing although Ignaz Semmelweis got all the glory and hate from 1847. Louis Pasteur proved that streptococci was responsible on 13th March 1879 after some great names of early asepsis such as Joseph Lister, but not Alexander Ogston, got it wrong.
- 1773 Charles White obstetrician and cofounder of Manchester Royal Infirmary advocates necessity of absolute cleanliness in the lying-in chamber and the isolation of infected patients with puerperal fever. He considerably reduced child mortality by this and other practices as expounded in the first edition of The Management of Pregnant and Lying-in Women[1]
- 1795 Alexander Gordon recommends that nurses and doctors "ought carefully to wash themselves" and showed that puerperal fever was transmitted by birth attendants[2].
- 1843 Oliver Wendell Holmes essay The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever[3]
- 1847 Ignaz Semmelweis
- 1879 Louis Pasteur blames streptococci specifically for puerperal fever at a lecture by Dr Herveriex on 12th March and proves the case the next day.
Web Resources for Puerperal fever
ICD 10 code: O85.0
Relevant Clinical Literature
UK Guidance
Other Wikis
Medpedia on Puerperal fever (Less technical, good quality control)
Wikipedia on Puerperal fever (Less technical, ? quality control)
References
- ↑ White C. "The Management of Pregnant and Lying-in Women" 1773 Edward and Charles Dilly
- ↑ Alexander Gordon, A treatise on the epidemic puerperal fever of Aberdeen, London, printed for G G and J Robinson, 1795
- ↑ Holmes OW, The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever. The New England Quarterly Journal of Medicine 1843 alternative link
