Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (July 1, 1818 - August 13, 1865), also Ignac Semmelweis (born Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp), was a Hungarian physician calle the "savior of mothers" who discovered, by 1847, that the incidence of puerperal fever, also known as childbed fever could be drastically cut by use of hand washing standards in obstetrical clinics.