The Little-Known History of Cleanliness and the Pioneers of Handwashing
Wednesday, 15 October, is Global Handwashing Day, a reminder that in medicine, handwashing saves lives every day. The medical pioneers who proved it were often shunned, yet their work changed history.
To mark this day, I’m republishing this open-access article from Frontiers in Public Health titled The Little-Known History of Cleanliness and the Pioneers of Handwashing, published October 2022 in the Section on Infectious Diseases: Epidemology and Prevention.
It traces how doctors in the 1800s once resisted the now-obvious idea that washing hands could prevent deadly infections, and save lives. And how a few determined pioneers, often shunned by their peers, changed medicine forever.
Credit: Charing Cross Hospital: Stanley Boyd in the old operating theatre. Photograph, 1900. Wellcome Collection.
