History of Latin American Dermatology

ELBIO FLORES-CEVALLOS, LUIS FLORES-CEVALLOS, ZUÑO BURSTEINbrasilensis” (1937); “New Cases of Mycotic Lymphogranulomatosis found in Lima”(1949); “Epidemiology of Diseases Transmitted by Phlebotomos in the Peruvian Andes,Uta, Peruvian Wart” (1953) and “The Link Between Uta and Peruvian Wart in PotatoMyths represented in Mochica Pottery” (1961), among many others.Some of the scientific institutions to which he belonged are: the CILAD, of which he wasHonorary Member; the Mexican Society of History and Philosophy; the Latin American Societyof Dermatology; the Brazilian Society of Dermatology. Among others, his participationin the first Peruvian Congress of Dermatology stood out; he had been incorporated as HonoraryMember of the Peruvian Society of Dermatology on May 27, 1967.The awards he received during his professional career include the Order of HipólitoUnanue, with the rank of Grand Officer, the Order of Daniel A. Carrión, and the Medal ofHonor of the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.Figure 11. Dr. HugoPesceHugo Pesce (1900-1969) 15He was a physician, tropicalist leprologist, Doctor in Medicine, with graduate studiesin Italy; Dr Pesce was a pioneer in Tropical Dermatology education in Peru. He was bornin the city of Tarma-Peru in the year 1900. (Figure 11)He graduated as doctor at the Genoa Medical School, Italy, in 1927. He worked as ageneral practitioner until 1931; he collaborated at Archbishop Loayza Hospital with DoctorCarlos Monge and was part of the team that conducted the first studies of Andean Biologyin Morococha, in 1927.In 1931, he had his first contact with Tropical Medicine, working as a doctor in theSatipo colony in the Peruvian jungle. A product of his stay there was his first work in thespecialized field: Sanitary Geography in the Satipo Region.Back in Lima, he worked at the Medical Clinic of the Archbishop Loayza Hospital upto 1935, when he was appointed Sanitary Commissioner of the Region; that same year,he founded the Apurímac Anti-Leprosy Service (SALA), a predecessor entity of the nationalAnti-Leprosy Service which he created upon his return to Lima in 1944. This servicelater became the Leprosy Department and subsequently Division of the HealthMinistry Norms and Supervision Office.In 1937, he described the first case of Tubercular Leprosy in Apurímac. In 1945, hejoined the Infectious, Tropical and Parasitic Diseases department, headed by Doctor OswaldoHercelles the San Fernando Medical School. He worked on the world classificationof leprosy, of which he was the co-author with Drs. Fernández and Schujman from Argentinaand with Souza Campos from Brazil. He was creator and leader of the PeruvianLeprology School.He contributed decisively to the academic reconstruction of San Fernando Universityin 1961, occupying, by competition, the Chair of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Departmentas Head Professor, a post which he held for 14 consecutive years until May 15,1967, when he became Emeritus Professor. Besides his studies on leprosy, he studied andexhaustively collected data on exanthematic and recurrent typhus — of which he hadample experience due to his stay in the sierra — as well as on deep mycoses, especiallySouth American Blastomycosis and Histoplasmosis. He was manager of the Daniel A.Carrión Institute of Tropical Medicine of the National Higher University of St. Mark.The intellectual stature of Dr. Hugo Pesce went beyond medical activity; he stood outas a great lecturer, man of letters and philosopher, handling dialectical materialism withextraordinary skill for the analysis of a substantial intellectual baggage that his privilegedencyclopedic mind was able to treasure, becoming a prime consultant for scholarsof Peruvian reality.Hugo Pesce, teacher and researcher, died suddenly on July, 26, 1969, at 69 years ofage, at the height of his intellectual production, after having carried out gigantic, sustainedand impeccable academic work.318