Recognizing Ignaz Semmelweis and Handwashing

Today’s Doodle follows the official guidelines on how to properly wash your hands from the World Health Organization. Learn more handwashing tips from the WHO: See up-to-date information from the WHO on the COVID-19 outbreak and ways to protect yourself: Today’s Doodle recognizes Hungarian physician Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, widely attributed as the first person to discover the medical benefits of handwashing. On this day in 1847, Semmelweis was appointed Chief Resident in the maternity clinic of the Vienna General Hospital, where he deduced and demonstrated that requiring doctors to disinfect their hands vastly reduced the transmission of disease. Learn more: