Cystic fibrosis is a common childhood disorder, yet few people know about it.
In Australia, one child in 2500 is born with it, and one person in 25 carries the recessive gene which causes it.
Eighty children with this disease will be born each year in Australia.
Cystic fibrosis (CF for short) is a genetic disorder. Because it is caused by a recessive gene it will develop only if a child receives two recessive genes, one from each parent.
If he has only one such gene, the disease does not develop. That person, however, is a carrier.
If one child in a family has the disease, then each subsequent child will have a risk of one in four of having the same disease.
The basic problem in cystic fibrosis is that there is a widespread disorder of mucus-secreting glands.
It particularly affects the lungs and the pancreas which lies high up on the back wall of the abdomen behind the stomach.
It has two main functions. One is to produce enzymes, and this is the part affected in cystic fibrosis, which pass along a small duct to the first part of the small bowel. These enzymes are necessary for the proper digestion of fat and protein.
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