The Doctor’s Plague
Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignác Semmelweis
“Nuland has managed to rediscover a critical moment in the history of medicine, the anxieties of which . . . persist today.” —New York Times Book Review
Surgeon, scholar, and bestselling author Sherwin Nuland tells the strange story of Ignác Semmelweis with urgency and the insight gained from his own studies and clinical experience.
Ignác Semmelweis is remembered for the now-commonplace notion that doctors must wash their hands before examining patients. In mid-nineteenth-century Vienna, however, this was a subversive idea. With deaths from childbed fever exploding, Semmelweis discovered that doctors themselves were spreading the disease. While his simple reforms worked immediately—childbed fever in Vienna all but disappeared—they brought down upon Semmelweis the wrath of the establishment, which led to his tragic end.
“[A] medical detective story about the ambitious yet troubled physician who figured out how to prevent a deadly infection spread by doctors . . . [Nuland] brings this discovery to life.” —New York Times
“Riveting. . . . Nuland’s dissection of one of history’s great losses is unforgettable.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“This is one of the greatest stories in medical history, and . . . no one has told it better than Nuland does.” —Booklist