Cystic Fibrosis is a very rare but very life threatening disease. I decided to research more about this disease because of a book that I had read. One of the main characters in this book had Cystic Fibrosis which made me want to learn more. Another reason that this disease interested me was because of how young people get Cystic Fibrosis. I do know that many people among us may have this disease and we wouldn’t even know about it. Many people with this disease live normal lives.
Cystic Fibrosis is a common inherited disease in people with European and North American origin. The cause of this disease is from an abnormal gene that is carried by someone with a gene disorder. Cystic Fibrosis is diagnosed usually in infants or toddlers. It is diagnosed through a sweat test or a blood test. A sweat test is used to see if the salt in your sweat is at an abnormal level. If you were to have cystic fibrosis your skin would be very salty tasting.
Some of the symptoms that occur would be mucus that forms in the lungs and the intestines which would cause infections. Another symptom that will occur would be chronic cough and reoccurring pneumonia. Some of the treatments used to help cystic fibrosis would be therapy to get the mucus out of the lungs. Another way they treat this disease is through different antibiotics that help with the infections occurring from this disease. The last major treatment would be gene therapy which helps restore the abnormal gene.
Another name for this disease is called Mucoviscidosis. It occurs in 1 per 2,000 live births that are from a European and North American origin. Gene therapy was first indicated as a treatment in 1990 when it restored abnormal genes. The average age a person would live until with cystic fibrosis would be 30 years old. Cystic fibrosis has increased dramatically when it comes to the treatment and average life span.
I hope this gave you a little bit more knowledge on Cystic Fibrosis and how severe this disease is. Again many people are diagnosed when they are just born because of very high salt in their sweat. It is also only inherited because of an abnormal gene that caused your salt to be very high which causes you to make more mucus. I guarantee that if you have not been diagnosed with this disease it is very unlikely for someone to get cystic fibrosis if it isn’t diagnosed at a young age.
1.Do you know anyone with this disease? If yes how old are they?
2.How would you feel if you were diagnosed with this disease
3.Do you think they will ever find a cure for this disease and why?
You did a very nice job in talking about this disease. Although you explained cystic fibrosis thoroughly, you failed to say what it actually is. You mainly just listed off symptoms and who is at risk of getting it. It would’ve been ideal if you would’ve shared with us what the disease is and how you can tell if a person has it or not, also if they are effected by it in some way. For example, what are the negatives about having this disease? Can you participate in sports or school? Is it contagious? Doing research on those things would have enhanced your blog and would’ve made it more interesting to read. Good job on finding a video and a descriptive picture though! It looks like you put a lot of time and effort into this blog. I like how you related this disease to a book you read and pertained it into your blog. The link I have given you below is an article that I found about cystic fibrosis to give you a better idea on this topic:
http://www.cff.org/aboutcf/
Nicely done!
I was very interested in learning more about this disease. I had absolutely no idea that it was so severe. It is crazy that you could possibly only live to be about 30 if you have this disease. Also, I don’t really understand how they diagnose I young children. I want to know more about what goes in to diagnosing this severe disease. I believe that one day they will find a cure this disease. This website talks about diagnosing as a newborn, I didn’t know that they screen for the disease right away: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cystic-fibrosis/basics/symptoms/con-20013731