Who advanced the idea of antisepsis in healthcare using phenol?

• A. Joseph Lister
• B. Louis Pasteur
• C. Alexander Fleming
• D. Eduard Buchner

Answer: (A)

Using phenol to prevent infections in medical care was popularized by Joseph Lister. Building on Louis Pasteur's germ theory, Lister proposed that wound infections came from microbes and could be prevented with antiseptics. He treated wounds, sutures, and instruments with carbolic acid, and even used a phenol spray in the operating room. This approach dramatically reduced postoperative infections and deaths, establishing antiseptic technique as standard in surgery. Pasteur laid the theoretical groundwork about microbes causing disease; Fleming later discovered penicillin; Buchner showed that fermentation can occur without intact cells. None of these figures implemented the practical antiseptic use of phenol in clinical practice the way Lister did.