Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician born in 1818, known for his pioneering work in antiseptic procedures. He observed that the incidence of puerperal fever was significantly higher in hospitals where doctors did not wash their hands after performing autopsies before attending to pregnant women. This led him to advocate for hand hygiene among medical staff. Despite his findings, Semmelweis faced resistance from the medical community, and his ideas were largely ignored during his lifetime. He continued to promote handwashing as a crucial practice to reduce infections until his death in 1865, long before the germ theory of disease was widely accepted.