History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology in GuatemalaThe St. John of God Hospital, one of the country’s oldest, is the teaching hospital usedfor the training of the Medical School’s students, who rotate through the diverse services.The volume of patients in the Dermatology service is high, and encompasses low-incomeindividuals from different parts of the country.Dermatology as a specialized field was first launched at this hospital, and was recognizedas such during the 1940s 12,13 .DERMATOLOGY AT THE MILITARY MEDICAL CENTEROn October 9, 1880, General Justo Rufino Barrios decided on the creation of the MilitaryHospital “considering that it is a duty of the government to assist, in an efficientmanner, those individuals in the army who lose their health as a consequence of the service;that, following good administrative precepts, it is necessary to create an establishmentin which the military may obtain good professional care, under appropriatemedical monitoring.” The news was published in The Guatemalan, the official journal ofthat period, on Thursday the 14 th of that same month, in its issue No. 310. The officialopening took place on March 16, 1881 14 .Ten and a half months after the opening, on January 31, 1882, the first bylaws of theMilitary Hospital were adopted, drawn up by Dr. Joaquín Yela, medical inspector, and Dr.Francisco Abella, a surgeon at the establishment, in which it is stated: “there shall be aphysician and surgeon, who must be a member of the Republic’s Medical School, appointedby the government at the proposal of the [hospital’s] president. The physician appointedshall be responsible for the care of the patients, in collaboration with the internsin Medicine and Surgery, who must belong to the fourth year of study as a minimum.”In that period there were no specialists in medicine; the physician and surgeontreated all patients in general, including those with skin ailments. The patients sufferingfrom venereal diseases were to pay fifty cents per stay and, in case of recurrence, twothirds of their wages.In 1913, two wards were built for patients suffering from skin and venereal diseases;in 1914, Commander Dr. Antonio Macal took charge of the wards for chiefs and officers,surgery, and skin and venereal diseases. In 1915, improvements in hygienic and sanitaryconditions were declared to be urgently needed in the wards for patients with skin diseases,because these patients frequently fled from the hospital.On December 25, 1917, the building of the Military Hospital suffered great damage asa consequence of the earthquake that ravaged the city of Guatemala. The building’stower collapsed the following day. The hospital’s precarious condition extended allthrough the year 1919, it being virtually impossible to treat the ill from the militarycorps.In mid-November 1920, the government ordered that the Military Hospital be transferredto the building that had been occupied by the Joaquín Maternity Asylum. The patientswere moved there as of December 6.In 1924, Dr. Carlos Padilla y Padilla, the technical director, took charge of the surgery,skin disease and emergency rooms. As of December 5, through a ruling by the presidentof the country, General José María Orellana, a ward offering free treatment was establishedto care for the health of the neighbors in the area.On July 21, 1929, Drs. Ramiro Gálvez Asteguieta and Enrique Echeverría were put incharge of the wards for chiefs and officers, medicine, and skin and venereal diseases. OnFebruary 14, 1935, the establishment’s library was opened. That same year, monthlyconference cycles were organized: in the month of July, the conference, on “Frambesia,”was given by Dr. Guillermo Sánchez, and in the month of December the conference on“Serological Methods for Syphilis Research” was given by Prof. E. Jacobsthal.The presidential message to the National Legislative Assembly, presented by General235