Family Therapeutic Trajectories: rare hereditary diseases involving long-term suffering

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This article analyzes common elements in the trajectory of people affected by rare hereditary diseases in Brazil, focusing on the search for diagnosis and treatment, and the reproducibility in the family. Rare diseases affect 65 people in every 100 thousand. These are usually chronic and degenerative conditions, many incurable or without effective treatment. About 80% of rare diseases are genetic in origin and can be inherited. This fact has important implications for family health care policies, reproduction, and care for clinical conditions that, in some cases, spanned generations. To analyze the data, two theoretical axes are articulated: family and kinship studies, and analyzes of long-term suffering. The research investigated people affected by rare hereditary diseases and their families, in the political scenarios in which these actors circulate, such as patient associations, scientific congresses and public hearings. There is evidence of the need to build a continuous agenda on rare diseases in Brazil capable of effectively promoting universal and integral access of the affected persons to the public health system, and seeking for solutions to alleviate suffering that threatens the very continuity of the family.