History of Latin American Dermatology

JOSÉ G. DÍAZ ALMEIDA, ALFREDO ABREU DANIELOther noted events in this periodOn February 26, 1917, the St. Lazarus Hospital was inaugurated in the township ofRincón or Santiago de las Vegas, after a lengthy pilgrimage of the patients through diverseinhospitable and inhumane facilities. Its first head was Dr. José A. Clark, replacedsoon afterwards by Dr. Benjamín Primelles.In 1920 the Health Secretariat created the Venereal Prophylaxis Dispensary, whichgradually went out of existence due to financial problems. Next, an office for the treatmentof venereal diseases was opened at the Del Cerro First-Aid Center headed by Dr. MatíasDuque. This service, along with those that operated at the Emergencies Hospital since1921, gave rise to the Joaquín Albarrán Municipal Institute for Venereal Prophylaxis 6 .On June 26, 1928, the Cuban Society of Dermatology and Syphilography was founded,with the aim of promoting scientific exchanges through the presentation of cases for discussionand of papers allowing the development of links among Cuban and foreign dermatologists9 . The first governing board was presided by professors Sáenz and Pardo.On June 1929, the first issue of the Newsletter of the Cuban Society of Dermatologyand Syphilography was issued; the publication folded in the third quarter of 1930 owingto the grave political situation that was rending the country, to reappear in 1946 underthe leadership of Drs. Ovidio de Laosa and J. R. Morales Coello. In that same year, theJoaquín Albarrán Institute for Venereal Prophylaxis was founded — an institution thatbrought together outstanding dermatologists of the city of Havana and that attainedmajor importance in the treatment of patients with venereal diseases.Before the opening of the above-mentioned Institute, there only existed the Dermatologyservices of the Mercies and Calixto García Hospitals, as well as the Skin andSyphilis services of the Tamayo and Red Cross dispensaries. As can be perceived, governmentalservices were scarce and insufficient, as they only existed in the city of Havanaand in provincial capitals, with very limited resources.In 1936 the Cuban Anti-Leprosy League was founded, an institution of a private nature,partly subsidized by the Government of the province of Havana. The League carriedout public information campaigns in the written and radio media, to which wasadded a publication called Newsletter of the Cuban Anti-Leprosy League.Presidential Decree of December 5, 1938, created the Board (Patronato) for the Prophylaxisof Leprosy, Syphilis and Skin Diseases (PLESC), Prof. Pardo being put incharge 13 . Headed by a Committee of Patrons, it did not depend on governmental administration.Up to that time there had been no official organization for the handling andcontrol of those diseases. The Board negotiated the purchase of land in Santiago de Cubato build a hospital for leprosy patients and opened dispensaries in all the country’sprovinces. At the same time, the first Cuban National Campaign Against Leprosy andSyphilis was launched, the results of which were announced at the First National Conferenceon Leprology, held in Santa Clara in 1944 14 .On August 3, 1936, an event unfolded that was of great significance for science andin particular for Cuban Dermatology: the Treponema that produces pinta was discoveredat the Mercies Hospital, obtained from the lymph of skin lesions by means of the personaltechnique of Drs. José Alfonso Armenteros and Juan Grau Triana 15 . The importance ofthis discovery was recognized, as of the moment of the first communication, by the highest-leveldermatological institutions of the Americas and Europe.In 1941, the fungus that causes chromomycosis was for the first time identified inCuba by researchers at the Dermatology Services of the Calixto García and Mercedeshospitals 16 .In 1942, a leprosy census was carried out, in which the figure of 1,900 patients wasrecorded.In 1943, the journal of the PLESC — Revista de Sifilografía, Leprología y Dermatología —154