Graham Arthur John Ayliffe (Mar 1926 – May 2017)

Medical microbiologist

  • “widely regarded nationally and internationally as the founder of infection prevention and control”
  • Emeritus Professor in Medical Microbiology, University of Birmingham
  • served for three years in the Royal Navy as a medical assistant/laboratory technician and then went on to study Medicine at Bristol University.
  • awarded an MD from the University of Bristol in 1963
  • He married Janet Lloyd in 1963 and they subsequently had two children
  • 1964 Started working at the Acci
  • 1964 he joined the team at the Hospital Infection Research Laboratory (HIRL), Birmingham led by Professor Edward Lowbury
  • Together with his colleague Brendan Moore, was instrumental in the formation of the Infection Control Nurses Association in 1970.
  • developed the six step hand-washing technique, along with JR Babb and AH Quoraishi (known as the Ayliffe Technique)
  • His best known publication was The Control of Hospital Infection – a practical hand book, written with EJL Lowbury, AM Geddes and JD Williams in 1975
  • The technique was soon adopted by hospitals throughout the UK and was endorsed by the World Health Organisation in 2009.
  • appointed Director of the HIRL in 1980 following Lowbury’s retirement
    • “His time at HIRL saw wide ranging and seminal work on the science underpinning infection prevention and control. He was responsible for more than 300 publications and his worked ranged from hand hygiene and alcoholic hand disinfection, isolation wards, the emergence of antibiotic resistance and the role of plasmids, tests disinfectants and decontamination of equipment and the environment.”
  • appointed professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Birmingham in 1981
  • 1987 he was instrumental in founding the International Federation for Infection Control (IFIC) in association with the World Health Organisation (WHO)
  • 1990 elected chair of the International Federation for Infection Control
  • founder member of the Healthcare Infection Society and editor of its journal, Chairman of the Society (1980–84) and President (1988–94).
  • authored and co-authored numerous books and academic papers
  • 2004 awarded medical history book of the year with co-author Mary English, for their book ‘Miasmas to MRSA’, which as given by the Royal Society of Medicine and the Society of Authors
  • The Graham Ayliffe Training Fellowship was established in 2013.
  • “He had a long and distinguish career in science, as a government advisor, and in a long and close association with the Infection Prevention Society and its sister societies.
  • He has other interests including fencing, He was selected for the English team in 1960, became President of Birmingham Fencing Club for over 20 years and continued to fence in his eighties.

Papers include:

Comparison of two methods for assessing the removal of total organisms and pathogens from the skin

BY G. A. J. AYLIFFE, J. R. BABB, KIM BRIDGES, H. A. LILLY, E. J. L. LOWBURY, JANET VARNEY AND M. D. WILKINS MRC Burns Unit, Birmingham Accident Hospital, and Hospital Infection Research Laboratory, Summerfield Hospital, Birmingham

(Received 13 March 1975)