Ignaz Semmelweis [audio 30min]

In this programme from the "Great Lives" series of biographical discussions, writer and broadcaster Frances Cairncross nominates a forgotten hero of medicine: Ignaz Semmelweis. Semmelweis was a doctor ahead of his time: in the mid-19th century he discovered why women were dying in droves after childbirth: doctors were spreading disease on their hands around hospitals. The solution he came up with was regular hand-washing. But his message was ignored. Women carried on dying, Semmelweis went mad, and he died in obscurity. Matthew Parris chairs the programme, and Semmelweis biographer Sherwin Nuland offers expert advice.