History of Latin American Dermatology

JOSÉ G. DÍAZ ALMEIDA, ALFREDO ABREU DANIELFigure 7. GuillermoFernándezHernández-Baquero(1920-1987)Figure 8. Serafín Ruizde Zárate (1923-1991)In 1955 Dr. Horacio Abascal, director of the Venereal Prophylaxis Service, publishedan interesting work on pellagra and frambesia, establishing a definitive guideline on thephilological issue posed 21 .In 1956 the Cuban Government issued a commemorative stamp on the centennial ofthe birth of the pioneer of Latin American Dermatology, Prof. Raimundo G. Menocal.In June 1958, Drs. Guillermo Fernández Hernández-Baquero and Fernando Trespalaciospublished a preliminary article on the first case of piedra seen in Cuba, producedby Trichosporum beigelii 22 (Figure 7). In December, Drs. José Alfonso Armenterosand Oscar Romero revealed a new clinical form of chromomycosis which they calledpseudocheloidea 23 .■ Period of the Socialist Revolution Revolution (since 1959)On January 1, 1959, the victory of the Revolution took place — a historic event thatwould give rise to thorough political, economic and social transformations in our country.The previous stage had featured the absence of a health policy, scarce developmentof governmental public health institutions, lack of medical attention for the rural populationand non-existence of a program for the training of specialists. The country was ina precarious situation, in which administrative corruption and social neglect were predominant,with high indices of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and parasitism, amongothers, with scarce health services and high indices of morbidity and mortality due toavoidable diseases, as well as high rates of child mortality.Recognition of health as a human right and an obligation of the State has given rise tothe elimination of all the failings and negative factors that opposed that inalienable right.The first revolutionary measures were aimed at bringing medical attention in a freeand accessible manner to the entire country and carrying out health activities of amarkedly preventive manner to diminish and eradicate diseases by means of the developmentof a national health system, with a major participation of the organized popularmasses.In June 1959, Dr. Serafín Ruiz de Zárate, a noted dermatologist of the province of VillaClara 24 (Figure 8), was appointed Public Health Minister.In the first years of this period there was a very large exodus of physicians abroad, sothat the country was left with a limited number of dermatologists, who honorably tookon the task of medical assistance to our people and contributed to the training of newgenerations of physicians and specialists, in the face of the overriding need to moveahead with the development of the social and health programs that the country’s leadershiphad set itself from the outset.After the professors at the Chair of Dermatology were weeded out by the UniversityReform, in the second semester of 1960 new professors were brought in, by competition,who had already been working as adjuncts, instructors, associates or residents; in thisway, all activities were gradually normalized.In 1960, the PLESC closed down, to be replaced by the Leprosy Section (later Departmentof Dermatology), under the aegis of the Hospital Treatment section of the PublicHealth Ministry.Law 723 of January 22, 1960, created the Rural Medical Service, which was of the utmostimportance for the populations located in the country’s most remote areas, especiallyin the mountainous regions where a doctor had never been seen.Between the years 1961 and 1962 the University Council appointed Drs. Raúl Piñeiroand Guillermo Fernández Hernández-Baquero full professors and, as auxiliary professors,Drs. Andrés Valdés Alvariño, Bartolomé Sagaró and Carlos Castanedo, later promotedto full professors.156