Disease Database Drug Database Alt. In the lungs, where the effects of the disease are most devastating, CF causes increasingly severe respiratory problems. In the digestive tract, CF often results in extreme difficulty in digesting adequate nutrients from food. Most persons with cystic fibrosis eventually die of lung disease. At the present time, approximately 3,000 children, adolescents, and adults with cystic fibrosis attend specialized CF clinics.
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease.
It occurs when a child inherits two copies of the defective CF gene, one from each parent. As they have only one copy of the gene, these individuals do not have cystic fibrosis themselves, and can never get the disease. In most cases, they are not even aware that they are carriers, since they do not have cystic fibrosis, or any of its symptoms. CF was first described as a disease in the late 1930s. At that time, it was usually recognized only after a child had died, often as a result of malnutrition or pneumonia.