Lepra, exageración y autoridad médica

Abstract

In this article I analyze the reaction of Colombian physicians in the late nineteenth century towards what they saw as the growing number of people infected with leprosy in Colombia. Based on an incomplete census, doctors exaggerated the number of infected people to medicalize the disease because the care of patients was in the hands of philanthropic institutions. I examine the attitude of doctors as related to their perceived need of reinforcing their cultural authority, displaying their scientific competence in front of other social groups, and building a national medicine that would give them visibility in the international arena. Physicians found further justification in new bacteriological theories which conceptualized leprosy as a highly contagious and dangerous disease. In this period, medicine became a profession in Colombia: its teaching became stabilized in the National University and the doctors created societies and academies which contributed to their professionalizacion. Therefore, leprosy was used by the Colombian medical community in its process of building their scientific authority and enlarging their professional power.