Cystic Fibrosis is an incurable hereditary disorder in which the body secretes abnormally thick, sticky mucus, due to the faulty transport of sodium and chloride within cells lining organs such as the lungs and pancreas. The mucus hinders the pancreas, in preventing enzymes from reaching the intestines to help break down and digest food. It also leads to problems with breathing, digestion, infection, and death. .
Burton L. Shapiro, Ph.D. and Ralph C. Heussneer, Jr. report that cystic fibrosis can date back to as early as the 1600's when there were references to children with a "salty taste" and fatty stools. It was not defined as a distinct disease until the 1930's. Shapiro and Heussneer also state that in 1944 scientists recognized how a widespread defect in mucous secretions could explain many symptoms of cystic fibrosis. In 1946 the recessive inheritance pattern was proposed. Diagnosis, the development of the sweat test, and successful treatment of lung infection with antibiotics came about in the 1950's. In 1985 three different groups of scientists proved that the gene, which holds the recessive trait of cystic fibrosis, was located on chromosome 7.
According to Encarta, in the United States cystic fibrosis occurs in about one out of every 3,900 babies. Around 1,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and it is usually before the child reached three years of age. About 30,000 American children and young adults have cystic fibrosis. The disease affects less black people than white people. About one in 15,300 blacks are born with the disease, but about one in 3300 whites are born with it. In the general population about one out of every 31 Americans carries the recessive trait for cystic fibrosis. .
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The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation reports that in order for an offspring to have cystic fibrosis, it must inherit the recessive gene from each parent. Each time two carriers conceive a child, there is a 25 percent chance that the child will have cystic fibrosis, a 50 percent chance that they will be a carrier, and a 25 percent chance that they will not carry the gene at all.