Abstract

CARDOSO GOMEZ, Marco Antonio; ZARCO VILLAVICENCIO, Alejandro; ABURTO LOPEZ, Irma Araceli  and  RODRIGUEZ LEON, Mario Alfredo. Sufferer: a new concept for a new proposal for the care of chronic illnesses. Rev. Fac. Med. (Méx.) [online]. 2014, vol.57, n.5, pp.32-42. ISSN 2448-4865.

Nowadays, in Mexico, we find ourselves in an epidemiologic and demographic transition distinguished, among other things, by the ageing of population and the increase of the chronic and degenerative diseases as causes of morbidity and mortality. All of this demands a different health care model, to the one already created, to deal with acute and contagious diseases, in which the sick person can regain health in relatively short time, not so in chronic degenerative diseases, in which the sick person “suffers” the diseases for a long time, affecting his familiar, occupational and social life. In this paper, we propose to use the term “patient” (paciente, in Spanish) for individuals with acute or contagious disease and “sufferer” (padeciente, in Spanish) for those with chronic conditions which involves the exploration of new alternatives for effective health care.

Keywords : Sufferer; chronic illness; patient; healt-care model; Mexico.