History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology in Colombiahe had contracted, was curable; Federico Rivas Mejía rendered invaluable services in1840 during the smallpox epidemic; Librado Riva was the author of a treatise on Pellagra;Abraham Aparicio published his work Cold Baths in the Treatment of Typhoid Fever;Evaristo García wrote Effect of Otoba on Skin Diseases and the Variety of Leprosy Knownas St. Antón’s Disease; Policarpo Pizarro, venereologist; Juan de Dios Carrasquilla, researcherinto leprosy and pemphigus; Andrés Posada Arango, with his work The PoisonousFrog of the Chocó, and Ignacio Pereira, remembered for his publications onparasitic diseases. Gabriel José Castañeda was the first professor of Dermatology at theNational University of Colombia (1886-1898), with the focus placed on tropical diseases.The beginning of the twentieth century continued to be marked by the special attentionpaid to leprosy and syphilis. The era of the laboratories began, allowing the carryingout of original research and the intellectual development of illustrious physicians 17 .Pablo García Medina, the father of hygiene in Colombia,worked in Bogotá; born in Tunja in 1857, a medicalgraduate of the National University in 1887, he managedto get laws passed for leprosariums to be convertedinto colonies for patients; he was the firsthonorary president of the Pan American Sanitary Bureauand Secretary for Life of the National Academy ofMedicine. Eliseo Montaña Granados (Figure 5), father ofhistology in Colombia, professor of that chair in 1904,turned it from a theoretical into a practical subject withthe introduction of new microscopes and of microfotography.Roberto Franco (Figure 6) created the chair oftropical diseases in 1905 and invited Federico LlerasAcosta to his laboratory. The latter physician, born inBogotá where he studied veterinary science and likewise bacteriology, was to stand outfor his research into anthrax and its vaccine, and later into leprosy; he described theLleras Reaction and founded the Institute for Research into Leprosy. In 1910, with JoséIgnacio Uribe at the National University, Dermatology acquired the ranking of a specializedfield. Manuel José Silva (1892-1980), a dermatologist who had graduated from theUniversity of Paris and an academician, was full professor of the chair at the NationalUniversity, a teacher par excellence and founder of the Dermatological Wax Museum atthe same University. Gonzalo Reyes García studied Dermatology in Paris and Vienna; hewas a noted professor at the National University — from which he had graduated — from1930 to 1962, in addition to founder of the Colombian Society of Dermatology and of theNational Academy of Medicine. Other standouts were Miguel Serrano Camargo, CarlosCortés Enciso and Ignacio Chala Hidalgo. In 1936, Alfonso Gamboa Amador launched thesyphilography course; also standing out in this period were Alfredo Laverde Laverde,Tomás Henao Blanco and Guillermo Pardo Villalba (Figure 7), who, while president of theSociety of Dermatology, presided in Bogotá over the first National Congress (1960).Toward 1957, Fabio Londoño González became the necessary reference point in thestudy of leprosy, cutaneous immunology and diseases related to the sun; he stood outparticularly for his memorable contributions to the knowledge and treatment of actinicprurigo; his overall learning, courteousness and teaching and human qualities were unmatchable.In his first years he had brilliant disciples like Guillermo Gutiérrez Aldana, adermatologist and oncologist, Emeritus Professor of the National University, a man of exaltedvirtues, with unequalled teaching and organizational capabilities, who rescued andrestored the University’s Wax Museum; his encouragement of the person writing theselines is incomparable; also, Víctor Manuel Zambrano, and Mariano López López, anotherluminary in our history, the first dermatologist to graduate from the Federico LlerasAcosta Institute. Luis Alfredo Rueda Plata studied in Barcelona and specialized inFigure 5. EliseoMontañaFigure 6. RobertoFranco119