History of Latin American Dermatology

CÉSAR IVÁN VARELA HERNÁNDEZFigure 18.Liborio ZerdaFigure 19.Alonso CortésColombia. The chairs of bacteriology, histology, microbiology and syphilography werecreated; Epifanio Combariza and Liborio Zerda (Figure 18) played a major role, markingthe era of bacteriology and microbiology; in 1900, Francisco Tapia created a laboratoryat the National University in Bogotá, which later was transferred to the St. John of GodHospital 17 . Juan de Dios Carrasquilla searched in serology for the possibility of a treatmentfor leprosy, for which purpose he used patients’ blood in horses; his serum traveledthe world in 1896 leading to the creation of the Serotherapy Institute 35 . Roberto Francofounded the chair of tropical diseases and with the assistance of the philanthropistSantiago Samper set up the laboratory at the St. John of God Hospital at which JorgeMartínez Santamaría and Gabriel Toro Villa carried out major research into yellowfever and tropical diseases. In 1904 Eliseo Montaña Granados launched the era ofhistology; Laurentino Muñoz defined hum as “one of the creators of ScientificMedicine in Colombia” 2 .The Bacteriological Laboratory and that of the St. Vincent de Paul in Medellínwere created in 1913. The Samper Martínez Private Hospital was created in Bogotáin 1917; it set up a milestone with the production of immune serums and vaccines,turning in 1946 into the National Institute of Health 17 ; in the 1920s, some UnitedStates universities launched chairs in Tropical Dermatology and private laboratories,where Colombian physicians went for training, strengthening research upon their returnto the country; an important role was also played by the creation of the Pharmacychair at the National University in 1927 by Andrés Bermúdez. Around thoseyears, Gustavo Uribe Escobar carried out important research in Medellín on serologicalpositivity in carate. In 1922 Luis Patiño Camargo, after exhaustive research, demonstratedin Bogotá that typhus and typhoid fever were different diseases, identifying thelouse as vector of the former 17 . Federico Lleras Acosta founded his own laboratory inBogotá and launched his contribution to research with studies seeking the vaccine foranthrax and attempts to cultivate the Hansen bacillus. He tried out treatments for leprosywith diverse immunological preparations and described the Reaction that bears hisname, seeking an early diagnosis through a specific method 35 . His laboratory turned intothe Dermatological Center that bears his name 37 and that would find brilliant exponentslike Fabio Londoño González, who for more than three decades was the engine of majorresearch into many diseases together with Luis Alfredo Rueda Plata 26, 27, 38, 39 .A new era in research began in Colombia starting in the 1950s, with figures likeAlonso Cortés (Figure 19) and Gonzalo Calle Vélez of the University of Antioquia, wholaunched research based on prospective studies of patients and developed importantclinical-epidemiological, therapeutic, diagnostic and histopathological studies. Somewhatlater there would come the extremely outstanding mycologist Ángela RestrepoMoreno, who continues to this day. In Manizales, in the 1960s, Heriberto Gómez Sierralaunched the application of immunofluorescence techniques. In 1969, at the Universityof Antioquia, Gonzalo Calle Vélez created the Immunodermatology Laboratoryand that to this end summoned Myriam Mesa de Sanclemente and Stella Prada deCastañeda (Figure 20), who began studying and researching immunofluorescencetechniques for bullous diseases and later topical immunotherapy, immunohistochemistry,molecular biology and immunointervention. Also working at the tissuecultures laboratory since 1999, and earning recognition, are Drs. Mary Ann RobledoPrada, Ana María Abreu, Margarita Velásquez and Juan Carlos Wolf.In the 1970s, in Cali, Rafael Falabella launched, with the support of Nelson Giraldoand Carlos Escobar, important research into pigmentary alterations, particularlyvitiligo, designing surgical methods for the repigmentation of skin, cultures andthe implantation of melanocytes. In the 1980s the team was joined by Luis HernandoMoreno, Adriana Arrunátegui, María Isabel Barona, Claudia Covelli and Lucy García21 . In 1975, at the University of Antioquia, under the leadership of Alonso Cortés,126