History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology in the Dominican RepublicThe origin of the Dominican Dermatological Institute. Its achievementsIn 1963, with the goal of cooperating throughout the country against this illness, theBoard for the Struggle Against Leprosy was founded, which was to become the future DominicanDermatological Institute. During the period 1963-1965 the Board carried out anintensive information campaign in all the media, with the active collaboration of the SDD;in 1964, it obtained land for the creation of a center, the construction of which waslaunched in 1965 22 .On February 3, 1966, the doors of theDominican Dermatological Institute (IDD)were opened (Figure 7), a private entity,with the advice of professor FernandoLatapí — of the Pascua DermatologicalCenter of Mexico — and his assistantAmado Saúl. The institute was begun at asmall site on the outskirts of the city by asmall group of physicians: Huberto BogaertDíaz and Sócrates Parra, who graduatedin the United States; Ernesto Benzoand Colón Kuret, general practitionerswith a knowledge of Dermatology; MarioFernández, Antonio Coiscou Weber and Eladio de los Santos (Figures 8 and 9), dermatologists,recently arrived from the Pascua Dermatological Center 23 .Figure 7. Foundersof the DominicanDermatologicalInstitute (1966).From right to left,Antonio Coiscou,Eladio de losSantos, HubertoBogaert Díaz,Sócrates Parra,Ernesto Benzo,Mario FernándezFigure 8. Dr.Antonio Coiscouwhile offeringtreatment (1967)Figure 9. Dr. Eladiode los Santos whileteaching studentsof the AutonomousUniversity of SantoDomingo at theIDDThe creator of this project, which is currently the central axis of Dermatology in theDominican Republic, was Dr. Huberto Bogaert, who fought tenaciously to create andkeep the Center alive. Before 1966, there was no organized program with a nationwidescope for the control of leprosy; there were only three clinics at the hospitals, with sixspecialists in the whole country, five of them in Santo Domingo and one of them in Santiago.In that year the Medical School of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo(UASD) reinforced its education program, making it eminently practical and includingDermatology in its program of Internal Medicine. In that year, too, a Symposium onSyphilis and another on Leprosy for general practitioners were organized 23, 24 .In 1967, the IDD signed an agreement with the UASD to offer graduate courses in dermatologyand to improve the teaching of mycology. The following year the first dermatologistswho had fulfilled the one-year course graduated at the IDD: Idalina Sánchez,Maritza Santiago and Rosa Francia Rojas.In 1969, the first training program was launched for dermato-leprologist medicalauxiliaries, who were actively incorporated into the Leprosy Control Program and contributedgreatly to the struggle against this disease; at the same time, they have detected381