Author Anthony Valerio Releases New Book About Dr. Semmelweis

NEW YORK, July 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- "In a global #metoo moment, Semmelweis should also have his place as someone who listened to women and, significantly, to their ailing bodies, even as the medical profession dismissed a common affliction killing women as a "woman's illness" and therefore not worthy of a place on the forefront of medicine." Dr. Ellen V. Nerenberg, Wesleyan University

When Ignaz Semmelweis arrives in Vienna and changes his course of law to that of medicine, pregnant women mainly from the "comfortless classes" are dying at an intolerably high rate, as much as 30%. Semmelweis set out--alone, Jewish Assistant in racist Vienna--to find the causes and means of prevention of childbed fever, the H.I.V. and cancer of his day.

But even after he invents hand-washings of a solution of chlorine and places them in pitchers and bowls at entrances and exits to Dissection and the Maternity Wards, and circulates by hand-written letters that the new mothers' death rate has plummeted, the majority of his colleagues refuse to use his methods. To his bitter, tragic end, Semmelweis must find ways to continue his work on behalf of the health of new mothers and their newborns.

"His life is a beneficial example for all mankind." –Kurt Vonnegut

Anthony Valerio is the author of 10 books of fiction & nonfiction. His stories have been published in the Paris Review and anthologized by Random House, William Morrow and the Viking Press. He has taught at New York University, the City University of New York and Wesleyan University. Member of the Authors League.

"Thank you, Anthony Valerio, for shining light on a still too obscure hero, and thank you, Dr. Semmelweis, for your devotion to easing the suffering of women, and for honoring mothers, the givers of life. Read this book, men and women alike! It is one of Valerio's best!"

Professor Rebecca West, University of Chicago

For further information, please contact [email protected] or Anthony Valerio at 860-301-2130. www.anthonyvalerio.com

SOURCE Anthony Valerio