puerperal fever

noun

: an abnormal condition that results from infection of the placental site following delivery or abortion and is characterized in mild form by fever but in serious cases the infection may spread through the uterine wall or pass into the bloodstream

called also childbed fever, puerperal sepsis

Examples of puerperal fever in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Holmes suggested that unwashed hands among the medical and nursing staff were responsible for transmitting puerperal fever. —Gary Simon, The Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2023

In 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes proposed that puerperal fever, an often fatal infection following childbirth, had an infectious, transmissible component to it - one directly linked to the hygiene of physicians. —Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 29 Aug. 2015

This changed when Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor working in Austria, sought to find the cause behind the high number of new mothers who were contracting puerperal fever. —Annalisa Merelli, Quartz, 26 Jan. 2022

In the Vienna General Hospital, where Semmelweis worked, puerperal fever was especially common in the maternity ward where male doctors worked. —Annalisa Merelli, Quartz, 26 Jan. 2022

In 1847, the Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis could not convince his fellow doctors in Vienna to wash their hands before delivering babies as a way to prevent often fatal cases of puerperal fever in new mothers. —David Tuller, STAT, 17 Nov. 2020

And Semmelweis himself could never completely eliminate cases of puerperal fever, even when his protocols were strictly enforced. —Lindsey Fitzharris, WSJ, 19 Mar. 2020

Semmelweis noticed that the man’s symptoms were remarkably similar to those of women suffering from puerperal fever. —Lindsey Fitzharris, WSJ, 19 Mar. 2020

Semmelweis noticed that deaths from childbed fever, also known as puerperal fever, were much less frequent in the ward supervised solely by midwives. —Emily Sohn, Popular Mechanics, 2 Apr. 2020

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Word History

First Known Use

1716, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

puerperal fever

noun

: an abnormal condition that results from infection (as by streptococci) of the placental site following delivery or abortion and is characterized in mild form by fever of not over 100.4°F (38.0°C) but may progress to a localized endometritis or spread through the uterine wall and develop into peritonitis or pass into the bloodstream and produce sepsis

called also childbed fever, puerperal sepsis