Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Museomics Research Group, Helsinki Institute of Life Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Front Public Health. 2022 Oct 20;10:979464. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.979464. eCollection 2022.
Handwashing is a simple method for preventing the spread of pathogens. It is now common practice, but this was not always the case. Advocating for it often costed a doctor his career in the 1840s. Hospitals in the early 1800s had little idea of the significance of hygiene; thus, they were often mocked as disease-producing incubators or as "houses of death." Many of the ill and dying were kept on wards with no ventilation or access to clean water; hospitals were found to offer only the most basic care. The mortality rate for patients admitted to hospital was three to five times greater than that for individuals cared for at home. Doctors did not routinely wash their hands until the mid-1800s, and they would proceed straight from dissecting a corpse to delivering a baby, providing the basis for the spread of puerperal fever. Despite advances in modern medicine, healthcare providers still face the issue of infection outbreaks caused by patient care. While the body of scientific data supporting hand hygiene as the key strategy to prevent the spread of pathogens is substantial, we highlight that achieving this crucial, long-awaited breakthrough was a hard task through history.
洗手是预防病原体传播的一种简单方法。现在这已经是一种常见做法，但在过去并非如此。在 19 世纪 40 年代，倡导洗手常常会使医生失去职业生涯。19 世纪初的医院对卫生的重要性几乎没有概念；因此，它们经常被嘲笑为产生疾病的孵化器，或者是“死亡之屋”。许多病人和垂死的人被关在病房里，没有通风或清洁水的供应；医院只提供最基本的护理。住院病人的死亡率比在家中接受护理的人高出三到五倍。医生直到 19 世纪中期才开始常规洗手，他们会直接从解剖尸体到接生婴儿，这为产褥热的传播提供了基础。尽管现代医学取得了进步，但医疗保健提供者仍然面临着因患者护理而导致的感染爆发的问题。虽然支持手部卫生作为预防病原体传播的关键策略的科学数据很多，但我们强调，通过历史，实现这一期待已久的突破是一项艰巨的任务。
