What can the early infection preventing pioneers teach infection prevention and control teams today?

The 3 most prominent Infection Prevention and Control Pioneers (Gordon, Holmes and Semmelweis), works have been reviewed:•Gordon produced a line list of patients with puerperal fever. The list enabled for the first time Gordon to assert that puerperal fever was associated with specific physicians. Alas for Gordon, the most common person involved with cases, was himself.•Holmes investigated cases of puerperal fever also noting clustering of cases associated with specific physicians. 4-Years before Semmelweis was appointed he recommended that doctors and midwives who deliver babies should not also do post-mortem examinations.•Semmelweis – published 12 years after his discoveries. In that book he asserted that the most important means to prevent infection was to avoid contamination – not per se hand hygiene.•Holmes and Semmelweis, both believed that transmission occurred via directly hands and indirectly via fomites.•Current hand hygiene guidance has downplayed the full extent of the pioneers' discoveries and their conclusions.