Luis Prunes

Luis Prúnes Rissetti (2 November 1883 – 1970) was a Chilean physician, surgeon, professor, and politician of Italian descent, and a member of the Liberal Party (PL). He served as Minister of Public Health, Welfare and Social Assistance during the second administration of President Arturo Alessandri, from September to December 1938.

Early life and education

Prúnes was born in the Chilean city of Chillán on 2 November 1883, the son of Francisco Prúnes and Adela Rissetti Contreras. He received his primary education at the Colegio de los Padres Escolapios in Concepción and his secondary education at the Liceo de Chillán. He subsequently studied at the School of Medicine of the University of Chile, graduating in 1908 with the thesis Sífilis terciaria maligna y precoz ("Malignant and early tertiary syphilis"). He later specialized in dermatology and syphilology.

He married María Inés Gabler, who was of German descent, and they had three children: Lucía, Luis, and Jorge. His son Luis studied economics and commerce at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC) and law at the University of Chile. He later served as a director of Sociedad de Inversiones PRU-UA-VD., S.A., a company engaged in investment and import-export trade. He also represented several foreign companies in Chile and participated in a number of sports, including tennis and swimming, in which he won several awards. He was also a member of the University of Chile Sports Club.

Professional career

Before graduating, from 1903 to 1907, Prúnes worked as a resident physician at San Vicente de Paul Hospital in Santiago. In 1905, he also served as a physician at the lazaretto in Playa Ancha, where he was responsible for treating patients during smallpox epidemics. After qualifying as a physician, he began practising in Santiago, serving as a resident physician at San José Hospital and San Vicente de Paul Hospital until 1910. He later served as chief physician of a section at San Luis Hospital for two consecutive terms.

From 1931 to 1932, Prúnes was a member of the Junta de Vecinos during the administration of Radical President Juan Esteban Montero. Closely involved with the medical profession, he was a member of the Dermatological Association of Argentina, the Medical Society of Chile, and the Chilean Society of Dermatology and Venereology, serving as president of the latter two organizations.

Prúnes also served as a teaching assistant in dermatology and syphilology under Professor Puyó Medina, and as head of the clinic and outpatient clinic, where he taught those subjects. After presenting the thesis La prostitución, el neoabolicionismo ante el nuevo Código Sanitario de Chile, he was appointed an extraordinary professor at the School of Medicine of the University of Chile, where he taught dermatology and syphilology.

In 1948, Prúnes travelled to Easter Island to study leprosy. He examined almost the entire population of the island and identified 21 patients with the disease.

Political career

A member of the Liberal Party (PL), Prúnes was appointed a member of the governing council of the Workers' Insurance Fund in 1933, during the second administration of fellow Liberal Arturo Alessandri. On 15 September 1938, Alessandri appointed him Minister of Public Health, Welfare and Social Assistance. He held the position until the end of Alessandri's administration on 24 December 1938.

Later, during the administration of Radical President Gabriel González Videla, Prúnes represented Chile at the Ibero-Latin American Congress of Dermatology and Syphilology (CILAD), held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1950. He was also an honorary member of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology and Syphilology.

Prúnes died in Santiago in 1970.