History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology in Guatemalapossible to maintain it in relatively good condition. There was interest in having a newhospital dates from 1945, but for various reasons, mainly of a financial nature, the projectscould not be carried out until the year 1991. It was then that the Military Hospitalwas transferred to its new and modern building, changing its name to that of MilitaryMedical Center 11 .The General Staff of National Defense awarded Drs. Manolo Valladares and HoracioAntulio Paredes scholarships for studying Dermatology abroad. Valladares went to theMilitary Hospital in Mexico City and returned in 1994; Paredes went to the DermatologicalInstitute of Guadalajara, Mexico, and joined the service in 1996 in the sub-field ofDermatological Surgery. Later, in the year 2004, Dr. Paredes was appointed President ofthe Military Medical Center.On June 30, 2004, Dr. Eduardo Silva-Lizama took office as chief of the Dermatologysection, and Drs. Ricardo Garzona Barillas, Edgar Manolo Valladares and Isabel de Orellanajoined the Medical and Surgical Dermatology Unit.The Military Medical Center provides medical care principally to the army; nevertheless,it has recently extended its services to the civilian population.DERMATOLOGY AT THE INSTITUTE OF GUATEMALAN SOCIAL SECURITY (IGSS)The ideals that inspired the revolution of October 1944 took shape in two majorachievements for social benefit: the Labor Code and the creation of the Institute ofGuatemalan Social Security (IGSS).Social Security was adopted by Guatemalan structures through the national Constitutionadopted in the year 1945, as an immediate result of the popular uprising of 1944, andtook shape through Decree No. 295 of the national Congress on October 30, 1946 14-22 .The Polyclinic was inaugurated on January 26, 1963. In 1968 Drs. Aparicio Gonzálezand Guillermo Fortín Gularte took charge of the treatment of patients with skin andvenereal diseases; they were followed in 1972 by Eduardo Silva Martínez and FranciscoRolando Vásquez Blanco, who later went over to the General Hospital for Common Diseases22 . In 1975 Jorge Close de León joined the service; later, in 1976, Romeo AugustoMoraga Miranda was appointed; in that same year Rubén Mayorga Peralta took chargeof the Mycology laboratory. His work was continued by Heidi Logemann. In 1977 ConchaMarina González de Méndez and Miguel Eduardo Robles Soto were appointed; RamiroPaz y Paz followed suit in 1978. During the 1980s they were joined by Haroldo Soto Sandoval(1980), Álvaro Castellanos de la Roca (1983) and Eduardo Silva-Lizama (1986). In1992 Ricardo Augusto Garzona Barillas, Marco Vinicio Solórzano de la Cerda and JoséHigueros were appointed. In 1997 Lorena Bay and Guillermo Letona were added.This Unit contains the largest number of dermatologists, five in the morning shift andfive in the afternoon shift; an average of 150 to 200 patients are seen each day.The General Hospital for Common Diseases opened on August 7, 1967. Its aim beingto offer comprehensive medical care, it has 333 beds and 110 cradles, distributed inthree clinical departments: Medicine, Surgery and Pediatrics. Each of these departmentshas a chief, service chiefs, specialist physicians, chiefs of residents and residents. In1962, five years before the official opening, Dr. Luis Gálvez Molina launched the DermatologyService, followed in 1972 by Dr. Francisco Rolando Vásquez Blanco; during thisperiod Dr. Víctor Fernández, head of the pathology laboratory, took an interest in thestudy and histopathological analysis of skin diseases. In 1983 the dermatologists PatriciaChang and Eduardo Silva-Lizama joined, the latter subsequently moved to the Polyclinic.In 1990 Dr. María del Socorro Obregón de León was appointed. Since 1978 Dr. Olga MarinaRosales de Martínez has been in charge of the Pediatric Dermatology Service.At this hospital, Dermatology forms part of the Internal and Pediatric Medicine Departments;outpatients and hospitalized patients are treated 14, 23 .237