History of Latin American Dermatology

CÉSAR IVÁN VARELA HERNÁNDEZhot, like fever, and cold, like rheumatism, or simply as accidents (broken bones). Amongthe Embera disease was produced and cured by the Khai, which were “the essences ofthings, regarded as an energy, as something vital” 4 . The Motilón possessed certain notionsof contagion and attributed less importance to witchcraft. The Chibcha definedwords related to skin ailments, such as sojusua (acne and boils), sinua (dandruff), gacha,bimi (ulcer), iza (ulcer, scabies and smallpox) 5 .Native dermatological diseasesFigure 1. Jama-Coaqueceramic. Bartonellosis.Private collection ofHugo A. Sotomayor T.In pre-Hispanic times, many diseases must have existed, but the loss of the soft tissuesof the human remains that have been preserved has prevented them from beingproven. Nevertheless, some have been categorically defined. Thus, carate, caused byTreponema caratenum, called puru-pururú in the Guainía region, was frequent amongthe Chocó 6 ); according to Father Rivero, “they suffered from carate which affected theirhands and face with bluish and white spots, which they were proud of, to the extent thatyoung women who had not contracted carate did not get marriage offers.” Buboes(frambesia or pian), caused by Treponema pertenue, have been very well documented inpaleontological studies by José Vicente Rodríguez Cuenca and Carlos Armando Rodríguezof remains found in the Cauca Valley 6 . For Bartonellosis (Peruvianwart) — the vector of which is Phlebotomus, Lutzomía colombiana — there existsarcheological evidence that proves its presence in the south of the country7 (Figure 1). Bacterial carbon, known as maraña, was frequent in theGuajira peninsula; according to Pineda Giraldo, “man contracts it when hecuts an animal open and a drop of blood falls on some part of the skin, orwhen a small injury is suffered when cutting it open, or when he eats the badlycooked meat of the animal that has died of that disease.” Tokelao (tiña imbricada),a disease of the Chocó Indians on the Pacific coast. Petechiae fever andbuboe, which ravaged the conquerors who entered the Patía region fromPeru. Scabies, the stings of mosquitoes, bees, wasps, ticks, fleas and arachnids,and the bites of large lizards like the caiman, of serpents of the generabothrops, Lechesis mulamuta (rotting) and Crotalus dirussus terrificus (rattlesnake), andof bats, particularly Desmodus rotundo, which transmitted arbovirus and caused anemia6 . Chiggers (Tunga penetrans) and gusano de monte (nuche, miasis) were wholly unknownto the Europeans; according to Safari, “it has been calculated that the insects ofhot regions caused more victims among the Spaniards during the conquest than all of theIndians’ poisoned darts. They had no protection against chiggers and to free themselvesfrom mosquitoes were often forced to bury themselves in the sand.” Filariasis caused byManzonella ozardi is still present in our Vaupés jungles 2, 6 . Leishmaniasis is also considered,as deduced by José del Carmen Rodríguez Bermúdez from a pre-Hispanic sculpturefound in Cundinamarca. Evidence from coprolites demonstrates the presence ofseveral intestinal parasites such as Strongiloides, ascaris and whipworm 6 .As regards venereal syphilis, there has been much discussion whether its origin isAmerican or European, but there is ancient written testimony from which it is deducedthat it existed in our land in pre-Hispanic times. Recent paleontological studies, such asthose carried out by Prof. José Vicente Rodríguez Cuenca (National University of Colombia)and by Gonzalo Correal Urrego, who found traces in bone tissue in the remains ofAguazuque (Cundinamarca), which date further back than 3000 BC, seem to confirm it 6,10. The Spanish doctor Rodrigo Ruiz de Isla, in his work Treatise Called the Fruit of allthe Saints Against the Snake-Like Disease Brought from the Island of Hispaniola (1509),states that “it was brought from Haiti in the ships of Christopher Columbus, the firstcases occurring in Barcelona in 1493.” The same concept is expressed in the “Generaland Natural History of the Indies” of the chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (1535):112