Emerging Chronic Illness: Women and Lupus in Ecuador

This article reports on an ethnographic investigation of the experiences of urban Ecuadorian women suffering from the chronic illness, lupus. Chronic illness is “emerging” in Ecuador, and cultural models and the health care delivery system are struggling to adapt to the increasing burdens brought by life-long illness. Based on extensive qualitative interviewing of lupus patients and doctors and participant observation, we identify three areas of concern including a weak health infrastructure and unequal access to care, gender models that increase the emotional burdens, and cultural understandings about illness and morality that add to social stress.