Dr. Bernhard Küenburg
President Semmelweis Foundation
Last week we had the pleasure to attend the ICPIC in Geneva, the leading infection prevention conference in the world. It was an excellent meeting with respect to first class lectures, hundreds of posters and a lot of time for good networking in the coffee breakes.
It is easy to imagine that Prof. Semmelweis, whose 199th birthday we celebrate this 1st of July, would have been very pleased with this conference and most likely he would have contributed with some of exciting studies and data.
Sitting at ICPIC between an infection specialist from Sudan and a Professor from Bangkok and listening to a young Australian doctors lecture really gives the feeling, how people try to move this topic further on a global level and increase patient safety in our hospitals and beyond.
Next year we will celebrate the 200th birthday of Prof. Semmelweis and this is a good reason for the Semmelweis foundation in cooperation with other institutions to plan a couple of nice scientific events to honor this exceptional scientist Semmelweis, who was treated so absolutely badly during his life by colleagues and his managers.
We will keep you informed and we hope to see some of you at these events. Lets follow Prof. Semmelweis with the same dedication and courage that he has shown for the sake of his patients.
