CysticFibrosis
            
             WHAT IS CYSTIC FIBROSIS AND WHO DOES IT AFFECT:
            
             Every year, 1,000 children with cystic fibrosis are born in the United States.
            
             1 in 3,000 Caucasian babies have the disorder, making Cystic Fibrosis one
            
             of the most common lethal genetic diseases in Caucasians. Overall, there are
            
             30,000 Americans with Cystic Fibrosis, and an estimated 8 million people
            
             carry one copy of the defective gene that causes the disease. These carriers
            
             do not have symptoms of Cysitc Fibrosis, because a person must inherit t
            
            
             two defective gene's, one from each parent-to develop the disease. However,
            
             each child of two Cystic Fibrosis carriers has a one in four chance of being
            
             born with Cystic Fibrosis. You can now have test to identify couples at risk
            
             for having children with Cystic Fibrosis.Improved therapy has transformed
            
             Cystic Fibrosis from a disease, to a chronic illness, with most patients living
            
             to adulthood. But despite this progress, there still is no cure for the disease
            
             and most patients eventually will have infections of the airways and lung
            
             failure. Since the 1989 identification of the gene which is altered in Cystic
            
             Fibrosis, the pace of basic research has increased rapidly, and scientists
            
             hope to translate new knowledge about the molecule basis of the disease to
            
             new therapies to improve the lives of patients with this genetic disease. The
            
             National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in
            
             partnership with other components of the National Institutes of Health and
            
             the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, continues to foster research on the
            
             molecular processes contributing to CF, exploration of gene therapy to cure
            
             the disease, and efforts to develop other new and effective treatments.
            
            
             SYMOTOMS:
            
             The greatest symptom of Cystic Fibrosis is the excessive production of
            
             thick, sticky mucus in the airways. Several factors may contr...