History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Ecuadorian DermatologyIn 1916, under the presidency of Dr. Honorato Vázquez, there were someimprovements in the School, from its building, to the refurbishment of thestudio for classrooms; especially important was the fitting out of a small adjacentsite, with a rotunda for the anatomical amphitheatre. In the 1910s,importance began to be given to assistance at the hospital; autopsies werepracticed in the presence of students, so that true Anatomy was born, as wellas its derivation to the knowledge of pathological lesions. True scientificawakening occurred precisely in this decade, when doctors trained in Europe(Germany and France) arrived in Cuenca 14 . It is worth recalling, in addition to theaforementioned physicians, the name of Dr. José Humberto Ochoa Cobos, a doctor dedicatedto sanitary tasks and to Dermatology, who was sent to Lazul, Paute canton, to combata typhus epidemic, from which he became ill, dying as a consequence of the disease;in his honor, one of the infection-contagion wards of the old St. Vincent de Paul Hospitalcarried his name 16 .In March 1919, the Cuenca Medical School already had the following courses andtheir corresponding faculty members: Anatomy: first course, Dr. Ignacio Malo; secondcourse, Dr. Sebastián Moscoso; Philosophy: Dr. Luis Loyola; Pathology: Dr. Luis CarlosJaramillo; Therapeutics: Dr. Bernardo Yépez; Clinical Medicine: Dr. Nicolás Sojos;Surgery: Dr. José Mogrovejo; Obstetrics: Dr. Manuel Palacios; Chemistry: Dr. CarlosCueva, and Pharmacy: Dr. Nicanor Corral 14 .As an important piece of data, we can point out that in 1920 a heated debate tookplace in scientific circles regardingthe existence of exanthematic typhusin Azuay, as already suspectedyears earlier by Dr. Nicolás Sojos(Dean of the Cuenca School in 1904),and by Dr. Manuel Farfán, who apparentlydied of this disease, towhich he devoted his studies at hishospital and private practice. Healthpersonnel and bacteriologists ofQuito, Guayaquil and Cuenca(among them Dr. Nicanor Merchán) took part in the bacteriological study, without arrivingto a definitive solution.It was precisely in that year (1920) when “pasty smallpox” (eruptive septicemia) wasbacteriologically identified and described as a clinical entity in Guayaquil (Drs. WenceslaoPareja and J. T. Larrea), which was to be demonstrated later by the North AmericanTechnical Commission formed by Long and Eskey. Another event worth mentioning isthat in 1925 the first X-ray booth was set up in the city of Cuenca 2 .The Chair of Dermatology as such began at the Medical School of the University ofCuenca in 1929. The University Assembly at a meeting on September 12 of that yearelected the team of professors for the 1929-1933 period, which was on duty until 1936;its first official professor was Dr. José Mogrovejo Carrión, who also gave the Therapeuticscourse and had previously been in charge of the Surgery course 14 ; years later(1967), he was appointed Honorary Professor of the University of Cuenca MedicalSchool 17 (Figure 22).Around that time, a historical event happened in our city: the inauguration of the firstdrinking-water decantation plant (Figure 23).Subsequently, from 1938 to 1949, the Chair of Dermatology was included within thatof External Pathology, lectures being given by Drs. Luis A. Sojos, Víctor Barrera and JoséAlvear (who patented his “famous Alvear ointment”) 14 .In 1936, the Chair of Tropical Pathology was created by university decree. In MayFigure 19. The ParadeGround in Cuenca in1885Figure 20. Members ofthe Cuenca MedicalSchool in 1911, duringthe presidency of Dr.Luis CorderoFigure 21. Inside viewof the St. Vincent dePaul Hospital, theChapel in theforeground209