History of Latin American Dermatology

PABLO A. VIGLIOGLIA, ALBERTO WOSCOFFFigure 15. FifthIbero-LatinAmerican Congressof Dermatology.Buenos Aires.November 1963.InaugurationFigure 16. Ditto.CILAD GeneralMeetingFigure 17. Ditto.Presentation ofPatients at theRawson HospitalFigure 18. Ditto.Official Topic: SkinCancer. Rapporteurs:Prof. Jorge Abulafia(2nd from right) andDavid Grinspan (3rdfrom right)dermatologists took part, who agreed that it was the most brilliant and fruitful congressof all those held up to that time.In 1973 Sebastiao Sampaio, Pablo Viglioglia, Juan Carlos Gatti and Osvaldo Mánganofounded the Annual Gathering of Latin American Dermatologists of the Southern Cone(RADLA); initially and until the Eighth Congress Argentina and Brazil alternated as thevenue of the annual meeting. Since then the venues expanded to the other countries, turningRADLA into the most significant of regional congress, both for the quality of its scientificwork and for the number of participants. In 2005, at the meeting in Buenos Aires, the presidentwas Dr. Edgardo Chouela, under whose decisive and arduous handling the spectrumof participating countries was expanded to Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Mexico; theaddition of the Spanish-speaking community of the United States is to be integrated soon.International gatherings on leprology were also carried out under the leadership ofGatti and Cardama; the World Congress on Skin Cancer with the presidency of LéonJaimovich and Fernando Stengel as secretary was also a great success. Periodically, internationalgatherings are held on Pediatric Dermatology.These significant precedents justify and preannounce the brilliance of the WorldCongress of Dermatology which, under the presidency of Ricardo Galimberti and withAdrián M. Pierini as secretary, will be held in Buenos Aires in the year 2007.The Argentine Association of Dermatology and the Argentine Society of Dermatologyare representative institutions of Argentina as a whole.At the outset dermatological work was centralized in Buenos Aires; later, with therecognition of the capability and prestige of the dermatologists of the diverse provinces,subsidiaries and sections began to be established. The sections of the Argentine Societyof Dermatology which gathers over 2,500 dermatologists are those of Bahía Blanca,Province of Buenos Aires, Comahue, Córdoba, Corrientes, Chaco, Chubut, Jujuy, La Plata,Littoral, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Misiones, Rosario, Salta, San Juan, Santiago del Esteroand Tucumán. Catamarca, San Luis, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego are delegations.The Argentine Society of Leprology also forms part of the ASD.42