Revista médica de Chile
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An explosive increase in overweight and obesity occurred in Chile since the 90's, without an integrative national policy. ⋯ The frequency of obesity will continue to increase, producing severe health risks for the population. Public policies addressing both structural and individual aspects are recommended.
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Revista médica de Chile · Sep 2019
[The presence of women in Chilean medicine: from the times of Eloísa Díaz to this day].
Though the presence of many women in medicine goes unnoticed today, their incorporation to the field was slow and difficult. It took until the end of the nineteenth century for women to be finally allowed to study at the University in Chile, being Eloísa Díaz the first woman to become a medical doctor in 1887. In that century, only six women became medical doctors. ⋯ At present, women doctors constitute 40% of the total pool of medical doctors in Chile, being present in all specialties, though preferably found as general practitioners, family doctors and pediatricians. While many women have stood out in academia and in politics, they have also successfully reached high positions in scientific societies (and other offices such in the Health Ministry, and even the country's presidency) their participation is still limited in these areas. It is only fair to conclude that the outstanding participation that women in Chilean medicine enjoy today is not solely due to their long-lasting efforts, but more importantly, to their tireless struggle to overcome prejudice, discrimination and misunderstanding; the latter being especially represented by pioneer women of medicine.
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Revista médica de Chile · Sep 2019
[Julio Escámez Contreras and his masterful mural History of the Medicine and Pharmacy in Chile].
Julio Escámez Contreras was a highly creative, skilled and versatile Chilean painter who painted in Chile from 1940 to 1974 when he went into exile to Costa Rica and died there in 2015. In 1953-54, Escámez painted a large mural in a private pharmacy in the city of Concepcion, Chile, The History of Medicine and Pharmacy in Chile. This mural describes the origins and development of medicine and pharmacy in Chile, placing that origin in the medicinal activities of the mapuche indigenous population. ⋯ Read from left to right, the mural provides a highly lively, accurate and valid depiction of the evolution of medicine and pharmacy in Chile. Escámez' artistry and skill in the use of perspective, color, landscape, architecture and Chilean subjects, including real life individuals, produces a typical Chilean mural. However, his originality and consummate use of a non-verbal visual language delivers a more universal message, one that helps to explain the repeated efforts, of the government responsible for his exile, to destroy some of the works produced by him.