Hospital mortalities declined significantly post introduction of sulfa drugs and even more significantly post antibiotics.
My mom was one of the first kids in this state to receive antibiotics after surgery for appendicitis.
But yeah, Semmelweis was a genius. Too bad the ‘establishment’ shunned his ideas and killed women for decades afterwards.
So much for established medical ‘consensus’ being the best guide for effectiveness.
That worked out great for the H. Pylori guys too. They nearly lost their licenses to practice with that idea. Who ever knew most ulcers might have a bacterial cause.
Good thing consensus was wrong then too. My hubby was treated for that.
Unfortunately, Semmelweis was also a world-class jerk.
If you’re far ahead of your time, it’s a good idea to not be so confrontational about it that people reject your ideas because they can’t stand you.
Or at least that’s my explanation for why my ideas aren’t more widely accepted.
BTW, my boss came back three years ago or so from Belize with some sort of tropical infection that turned into colitis.
Tried very hard to treat it with nutrition, etc. because he didn’t like “modern medicine.” Then his colon ruptured, he had to have emergency surgery to remove the entire colon, and his heart stopped 3x on the table.
Modern medicine saved his ass.
My personal take is that the alternative stuff may often be great for maintenance, but if you’ve got something seriously wrong modern medicine is a whole lot more likely to save your life.
Look up the survival rates for wounded soldiers in various wars over the last 200 years. We think of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as comparatively low in deaths, but the main reason is that so many are saved after wounding. Most of whom would have died in earlier wars.