use of "carrier" for affected individuals I'm the process of paper drafting and stumbled upon the question, what's the appropriate name for individuals, who are affected by a disease, which is likely due to a mutation.

I was using the term "carriers" until now (like in: group one constists out of mutational carriers, group two is a control group).

Now I've read that the word "carrier" is just short for hereditary carrier (Wikipedia: has inherited a recessive allele for a genetic trait or mutation but does not display that trait)

So how do I refer to patients that are affected by the mutation. I've thought about "patients", but the control group consists out of patients, too.

Is there a correct word for this?
Look at the previous research on this disease, and check what those papers are using to designate these people. If there's a conventional way to refer to them, you'll want to conform to that; if they use different words you'll have some options to choose one you like from.