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Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis is one of the most common life threatening disease in North America. One in every twenty five hundred children born in Canada has cystic fibrosis.

What is Cystic Fibrosis?

Cystic Fibrosis is a disease with no cure and the disorder itself is inherited. It affects the lungs and the digestive system. Cystic fibrosis affects the lung severely causing serious respiratory problems. Also affecting the pancreas, liver, sweat glands and salivary glands in the mouth are affected. All these organs and glands plug up with thick mucous. Most people with cystic fibrosis usually die of lung disease.
About twenty years ago the life expectancy of a cystic fibrosis patient was not even five years. Now thanks to modern science and new research the average is thirty years of age.
The awareness of the disease has been around since the early 1930’s. The defective gene itself was linked to chromosome 7 in 1985 by Drs. Lap-Chee Tsui and Manuel Buchwald. Then finally in 1989 they announced the discovery of the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis.








Symptoms

The disease affects several bodily functions:

- Chronic cough producing thick mucous
- Loss of weight despite a big appetite
- Frequent and foul smelling bowel movements
- Large amounts of salt during perspiration
- Repeatedly getting pneumonia

What Causes CF?

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease. It occurs when a child inherits two copies of the defective CF gene, one from each parent.
Approximately one in every 25 Canadians is a carrier of the gene which causes CF. As they have only one copy of the gene, these individuals do not have cystic fibrosis themselves, and can never get the disease. In most cases, they are not even aware that they are carriers, since they do not have cystic fibrosis, or any of its symptoms....

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