History of Latin American Dermatology

JULIO CORREAJulio C. Empinotti, Sebastião Sampaio (Brazil), and Manuel Giménez, León Jaimovich,Héctor Lanfranchi and Mario Marini (Argentina).The Third Paraguayan Congress of Dermatology took place from September 20through 22, 2002, with the same predisposition and enthusiasm as the previous ones,again taking up the subjects already mentioned and with the addition of some innovationsand with the illustrious presence of such guests as professors Drs. GuadalupeChávez, Roberto Arenas, Roberto Estrada and Josefina Carbajosa (Mexico), HéctorCáceres (Peru), Manuel Zamora, Martín Sangüeza and Juan C. Diez de Medina (Bolivia),Margarita Larralde (Argentina), Antonio Rondón (Venezuela), Raúl Cabrera (Chile) andMarcello Menta (Brazil).On July 25 and 26, 2003, the First Sessions in Paraguay were held, with the invaluablecollaboration of professors Drs. Miguel Allevato, Juan C. Diez de Medina, Jaime Piquero,Martín Sangüeza and Néstor Macedo, promoted by the Paraguayan Society ofDermatology with the support of other institutions, and attended by a large number offellow dermatologists and interested parties in general in these aspects of the specializedfield, through conferences, interactive sessions and meetings.The Fourth Paraguayan Congress of Dermatology and First CILAD Course for generalpractitioners, clinical doctors and pediatricians took place from September 24 through26, 2004, with the auspices of the Paraguayan Society of Pediatrics, the DermatologicalService of the National Hospital, the Department of Leprosy of the Ministry of PublicHealth and Social Welfare, the Department of Dermatology-School of Medical Sciences-National University of Itapúa, the Dermatology Service-Central Hospital of the SocialWelfare Institute and the Department of Internal Medicine-Central Hospital of the SocialWelfare Institute. Foreign guests included professors Drs. Carlos F. Gatti and Adrián M.Pierini (Argentina), Juan C. Diez de Medina and Martín Sangüeza (Bolivia), Roberto Arenas(Mexico), Ricardo Pérez Alfonso and Elda Giansante (Venezuela); the topics included,as in past events, the entire spectrum of dermatological ailments in general.All the events took place in the country’s capital, Asunción. Noblesse oblige: mentionmust be made of the participation of eminent Paraguayan physicians, such as professors,teaching instructors, colleagues from the School of Medical Sciences of the National Universityand from well-known public hospitals of Paraguay, as well as specialists fromother disciplines such as hematologists, infectologists, internists, pediatricians and otherspecialized fields of the Medical Sciences, without whose selfless participation theseevents would have not been possible.Without giving names, for fear of unjustified oversights, our sincere gratitude goes outto all of them. In conclusion, we can state that the activities carried out by the dermatologistsof Paraguay, in its new phase of consolidation and definitive insertion in the fascinatingworld of the sciences, have as final destiny the application of knowledge to thepatients who request sincere assistance for the relief of pathologies at the level of thetegument, for which reason they turn to consultation at the temple of this work, the dermatologist’soffice. ■September 2005298