History of Latin American Dermatology

Dermatology and dermatologists in BrazilSyphilographyy. The change in denomination would be implemented only in 1965, thuscompleting 40 years of permanence of the second official name and the acronym BSDS.Historical personalities■ Historical personalitiesSebastião de Almeida Prado SampaioWhen a remarkable figure in the specialized field, such as São Paulo-born Luiz HenriqueCamargo Paschoal, is asked to say who should be part of the Dermatology pantheon,the answer is the following:“I would put Sebastião Sampaio on the pedestal. You, who will write about the Historyof Brazilian Dermatology, have to consider two eras: before and after Sampaio. Hewas and still is a frame of reference. Tremendously intelligent and trained, he broughtfrom the United States the therapeutic school of alleviating and curing diseases, contrastingwith the posture of the French school, dominant in Brazil, much more preoccupiedwith the description of skin diseases. Sampaio, a very hard-working man, hadspectacular medical knowledge and an unparalleled humanistic posture. Sampaio was aman of great culture. Imagine my luck: I was his first disciple” 2 .Sebastião Sampaio (Figure 5) was born in the interior of the State of São Pauloand studied in its capital. His initial preference was engineering, because he was anexcellent student in mathematics. But his mother, who had always wanted to have adoctor for a son, influenced him to begin medical studies in 1938 at São Paulo University(SPU), whence he graduated in 1943.Already in his student years, Sampaio worked in the League for the StruggleAgainst Syphilis, at a specially serious time due to the precarious economic situationof the family. He signed up for a competition at the Leprosy Prophylaxis Department,and upon being approved was hired as an academic auxiliary. “When I finished MedicalSchool, I had already been working for two years with leprosy and syphilis patients,so Dermatology became the natural path to follow.”That path progressively widened, to the point that Sebastião Sampaio became thethird great reference point for dermatology in São Paulo (the other two being Adolpho Lindembergand Aguiar Pupo). “The chair was Dermatology and Syphilography. ProfessorPupo also greatly liked working with lepers. When I graduated as a doctor, and sincemandatory internship did not exist yet, the professor decided that I should frequent theDermatology outpatient office, and that is how I gradually trained in the specialized field.”With five years of dermatological experience, Sampaio became a member of the faculty,and obtained a grant to attend the Mayo Clinic in the United States, at that time thelargest medical center in that country; he completed his medical internships there, between1951 and 1952, and then continued his studies in Europe.At the Mayo Clinic, Sampaio saw that patients were visited every day and received efficientmedical attention, a practice he applied in São Paulo upon his return, influencingmany generations of Brazilian dermatologists. “I trained disciples, and my disciplestrained other disciples,” he used to say.He was President of the Brazilian Medical Association, of the Ibero-Latin AmericanAssociation of Dermatology and of the Regional Medical Council and a member of the InternationalCommittee of Dermatology.From his chair at SPU, Sebastião Sampaio trained disciples who spread all aroundSão Paulo State, many Brazilian states and abroad; most of his disciples maintained theirrelationship with the master, whom they invited for decades to give conferences and attendmeetings and sessions, besides conferring prestige with his presence to variousmeetings he himself created.Figure 5. Dr. SebastiãoSampaio77