Cystic fibrosis in adolescents

Abstract

Folklore from central Europe recounts that infants who taste salty with their mother's kiss will not survive infancy. This is felt to be the first description of cystic fibrosis. Centuries later in 1938, the first description of CF in the medical literature noted pancreatic abnormalities, malnourishment, and associated pneumonia in infants who died usually in the first year of life (Andersen, 2008). The disease was noticed to be more prevalent among Caucasians, with affected individuals dying in early childhood. For years, families were told of grim outcomes until the late 1980 s when the affected gene was discovered, along with new therapies. Since then, life expectancy has dramatically improved with a current median survival age of 36.5 years as reported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 2005 (http://www.cff.org). © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.