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About cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common inherited disease affecting the developed world, with one in every 2,500 children affected. It is a multi-organ disease, affecting the lungs, gut, liver, pancreas and reproductive tissues. At present about half of those with CF will die by their late 30’s from lung disease which is the cause of death in over 90% of CF patients.

1 in 25 people with Caucasian ancestry carry a defective CF gene (often without knowing it).

There is roughly a 25% chance that a baby with parents who are CF carriers has CF themselves.

With CF, the major contributor to worsening health and early death is lung disease. CF results in ongoing loss of lung function due to repeated airway infection and lung tissue damage.

No cure is available. Current treatments are very short lived and can only slow the inexorable destruction of the lung. The lung infections in CF patients continue to be extremely difficult to treat, even with the strongest antibiotics and most innovative therapies.

Complications related to CF can lead to the destruction or malfunctioning of other organs in the body, while the drugs used to treat CF can have debilitating side effects.

More information on CF is available here

Cystic fibrosis is the most common inherited disease in the developed world, with one in 2,500 children affected.

About half of all people affected by cystic fibrosis will die by their late 30’s from lung disease.