Medical Questions » Lungs Questions » Question No. 600
| Question: | I have a cousin who has just been diagnosed as suffering from cystic fibrosis. Can you tell me about this disease? |
| Answer: | Cystic fibrosis is a disease that you are born with. It is due to a lack of digestive enzymes and an inability to protect the lungs from recurrent infections, and sterility in males. The sweat of these patients is also excessively salty, and the presenting symptom to a doctor may be the mother' s comment that the child tastes salty when kissed.
About one in every 2000 children has the disease.
The digestive enzymes are produced in the pancreas, an organ that sits behind the belly button in the abdomen. The enzymes are not produced and the pancreas is not properly developed in these patients, but this part of the disease can be overcome by taking capsules of the required enzymes at meal times. Some babies are born with their gut blocked up with mucus because of the lack of enzymes.
The lung condition is more serious and requires chest physiotherapy several times a day, drugs to clear mucus from the lungs and regular antibiotics to cure infections.
The disease cannot be cured yet, but long-term control is now possible and genetic engineering may produce a cure in the next decade or so.
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