History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology in Colombia■ Dermatology from the Discovery of America to the Colony.The influence of the Conquest and the new diseasesII. La Dermatología desde el descubrimiento de América hasta la Colonia. La influenciade la Conquista y las nuevas enfermedadesCésar Iván Varela Hernández-Jaime Gil JaramilloIn 1499, Alonso de Ojeda, Amerigo Vespucci and Juan de la Cosa touched Colombianlands in Coquibacoa — today Cabo de la Vela, in the Guajira peninsula — thus launchingthe period of the Conquest on our territory, which lasted until the year 1550 1 . In that periodSanta Fe de Bogotá (now Bogotá) was founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, onAugust 6, 1538. The arrival of the Spanish colonists triggered a radical change for theindigenous populations, in their lifestyle, eating habits, customs and beliefs, additionallythreatened by the imposition of a new religion. The high organic vulnerability of our Indianswas determined by the malnutrition caused by their nourishment based on carbohydratesand scarce protein, to the diseases native to the Americas and to the absenceof immunity to those imported from Europe. These factors, added to the colonists’ domination,caused an immense demographic catastrophe among the aboriginal communities.It is estimated that by the seventeenth century, 90% of the native population haddisappeared; nevertheless, the meeting of the two worlds was beneficial through the mixingof the major contributions that our Indians made to mankind with their vast knowledgeof herbs with the scientific input from the other side of the ocean.The first protomédicos and physiciansÁlvarez Chanca was the first European physician who arrived in the Americas, onColumbus’ second voyage and as far as the lands of the Darien in 1514. With the conquerorsthere also arrived charlatans, empirical practitioners, and some military protomédicos(medical overseers) like Captain Antonio Díaz Cardozo in 1538 and the soldierMartín Sánchez Ropero 9, 16 ; there also arrived Pedro Fernández de Valenzuela, a popularand controversial character who wrote the Treatise of Medicine and Model of Curingin These Parts of the Indies; Mendo López del Campo, Lope Sanjuán de los Ríos and, as asurgeon, Esteban González; in Santa Marta, the presence of Luis de Soria and of four barbers(surgeons) is mentioned in 1528; Martín Rodríguez practiced in Cartagena in 1547.During the Conquest, there was no medical teaching in Colombia.The first hospitalsSince the discovery and colonization were begun along the Atlantic coasts, it was inthat region that the first settlements were set up and consequently it was there that hospitaltreatment was launched. According to Andrés Soriano Lleras, in 1513 King Ferdinandthe Catholic ordered the creation of a hospital in the Darien — the Hospital of SantaMaría the Old of the Darien — which was transferred in 1524 to the territory of what istoday Panama. In 1535, in Cartagena, construction began of the St. Sebastian Hospital,later St. Clare, also known as Charity, which handled all types of diseases; the same yearsaw the beginnings of St. Lazarus Hospital, which turned into the first leprosarium; later,the Holy Spirit Hospital was founded for the incurably ill. In 1528 the Santa Marta Hospitalwas founded 2, 16 .The new diseases imported from EuropeMany dermatological ailments were brought by the Spanish conquerors; special mentionis deserved by leprosy and exanthematic diseases, particularly smallpox andmeasles. African slaves, for their part, arrived decimated by scurvy, gangrene, typhus115