Which disease did Ignaz Semmelweis aim to prevent through hand hygiene?

• A. Puerperal fever
• B. Smallpox
• C. Tuberculosis
• D. Malaria

Answer: (A)

Preventing infections transmitted during medical care, especially postpartum infections after birth, is what this item is about. Semmelweis linked the high death rate from postpartum illness to physicians who moved from cadaver dissections to delivering babies without washing their hands. He introduced hand hygiene with a chlorinated solution and saw a dramatic drop in maternal deaths, demonstrating that the illness could be prevented by stopping the spread of contamination during care. The disease he aimed to prevent is puerperal fever, a postpartum uterine infection that can lead to sepsis. The other diseases listed—smallpox, tuberculosis, and malaria—arise from different causes and transmission routes and were not the targets of his handwashing intervention in obstetric care.