|
Cystic Fibrosis
Who has it?
According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, about 1000 Americans are newly diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) each year. In the United States, the incidence of cystic fibrosis is greatest among the Caucasian population, at a rate of about one affected individual in 3,200 live births. The condition is much less common in the Hispanic-American (about one in 9,500 live births), African-American (about one in 15,300 live births), and Asian-American (about one in 32,000 live births) populations. About 30,000 people in the US are affected by this genetic disorder.
Roughly 5% (nearly 10 million people) of the U.S. population may have a defective CF gene without knowing that they do. CF is a recessive genetically-inherited disorder, which means that both parents must carry the defective gene in order to have a child with CF. These CF "carriers" have no symptoms of the disease and they are not ill. Their children, however, have a 25% chance of having CF and a 50% chance of being a carrier of the genetic defect. Unfortunately, the offspring of two individuals with CF will inherit the genetic disorder.
In 2003, CF was most commonly diagnosed at the age of 6 months and nearly 80% of CF patients were diagnosed by the age of 3. However, due to the advancement of medical technology, healthcare professionals are currently utilizing new methods to diagnose CF earlier in an infant's life. The discovery of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), the gene involved in CF, may help provide a more accurate method of detecting the beginning stages of CF. By identifying the genetic defect associated with the development of cystic fibrosis earlier in the disease, potentially life-threatening complications such as meconium ileus (bowel blockage), may be avoided.
|
Who has it?
