History of Latin American Dermatology

PAULO R. CUNHAin Dermatology at SPU. In 1966, she was appointed professor at the recently-createdMedical and Biological Sciences University of Botucatu. She held the post of Full Professorof Dermatology at that school brilliantly up to her retirement.Ney RomittiHe graduated in 1958 from the National Medical School; he completed his internshipin Germany, where he published twenty scientific papers. He was Full Professor of theMedical School of Santos. He possesses a remarkable general and dermatological culture.Renée Garrido NevesHaving graduated in 1953 from the Fluminense Medical University, he was for thirteenyears a voluntary assistant of João Ramos e Silva. He worked in the Leprology Service.An assiduous participant of the BSD meetings, he was responsible for the purchaseof the entity’s premises.Mauricio and Alice Casal AlchorneMauricio was born in Pesqueira, PE; he moved to Recife for high school and to studyMedicine at the Pernambuco Medical Sciences University. His dermatology training andthe start of his academic career were carried out at the Hospital das Clínicas of theMSSPU. Since 1994, he is Full Professor of the UNIFESP/Paulista Medical School. At theHospital das Clínicas, he met the student Alice, from São Paulo, whom he married; theyhave two children and four grandchildren.Alice completed her medical internships at the Hospital das Clínicas of the MSSPU andis currently professor, associate and unchaired faculty member of the UNIFESP/PaulistaMedical School, since 1997.Both held different posts at the BSD, among them the Presidency of the São Paulo Region(Alice and Maurício) and of the BSD (Maurício).Rubem David AzulayBorn in Belém do Pará, in 1917, he graduated in Medicine from the Fluminense MedicalUniversity, and at Prof. Parreiras Horta’s Dermatology Service. He was head of theDermatology Chair of various Universities, at posts obtained through public competition:Pará, UFF, UERJ and RJFU. He was also responsible for the continuation of the activitiesof the historic St. Michael Ward, when the Chair and the Service of Dermatology of theRJFU moved to the University Hospital, at Ilha do Fundão.At the beginning of his career, he worked with Eduardo Rabello. Related to the BSDsince he was a student, he frequented the St. Michael Ward (financed in the early 1930sby the World Health Organization for international leprosy courses, but immediatelytransferred to the Dermatology Clinic of Brazil University). He was president of the BSDwhen it reached fifty years since its creation, and therefore resolved to change manythings: “The meetings already existed, but they all took place in Rio de Janeiro. The largemajority of members were from Rio. When I took on the Presidency, I had the Bylawsmodified, and started to promote meetings in other States, since I understood that Dermatologywas national, and not just from Rio de Janeiro.”He was also, on two occasions, chief editor of the Brazilian Annals of Dermatology,where he introduced many innovations. He was also President of the Brazilian Associationof Leprology, of the Ibero-Latin American Association of Dermatology, of the82