Handwashing Saves More Lives Than Any Medicine

Before the acceptance of germ theory, a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis made a revolutionary discovery in the 1840s. He observed that a Viennese maternity clinic staffed by doctors had a mortality rate five times higher than a neighboring clinic run by midwives. Semmelweis hypothesized that "cadaverous particles" were being transferred from autopsies to patients, so he instituted a mandatory handwashing policy. The mortality rate plummeted, yet his life-saving insight was widely rejected by the established medical community at the time.

The power of this simple act lies in the clever chemistry of soap. Soap molecules have two distinct ends: one that attracts water and another that attracts fats and oils. Many viruses and bacteria are protected by a fatty outer layer, or lipid membrane. The fat-loving end of the soap molecule pries this membrane apart, effectively destroying the germ in a way that plain water cannot. The friction from scrubbing for at least 20 seconds ensures this process happens all over the hands, while water rinses the dismantled pathogens away