Dolores Adams - Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Dolores Adams visited our club to discuss the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and shared facts about the disease, the progress that has made over the past generation and the challenges that face families living with Cystic fibrosis (CF). 

CF is a genetic disorder that particularly affects the lungs and digestive system and makes kids who have it more vulnerable to repeated lung infections.  Today, thanks to high-tech medical advances in drug therapy and genetics, children born with CF can look forward to longer and more comfortable lives. In the last 10 years, research into all aspects of CF has helped doctors to understand the illness better and to develop new therapies.

CF occurs when a child inherits two defective copies of the gene responsible for CF, one from each parent.  Approximately one in 25 Canadians is a CF carrier, carrying only one defective version of the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis. Carriers do not have, and can never get, cystic fibrosis. In most cases, they are not even aware they are carriers until they have a child with CF. 

Some facts about CF;

• Children, and adults, with CF are generally much smaller than their peers.
• A person with CF will have a very salty taste to their skin. 
• One person dies from cystic fibrosis in Canada each week
• One in every 3,600 children born in Canada has cystic fibrosis
• Cumulatively, CF patients spent over 20,000 days in hospital and attended nearly 15,000 clinic visits in 2010
• Today, half of all Canadians with cystic fibrosis are expected to live into their 40s and beyond
• 85% of individuals with cystic fibrosis must take pancreatic enzymes to digest food and absorb nutrients
• 44 CF patients received transplants in 2010, more than double compared to a decade ago
• Nearly half of all patients with cystic fibrosis are infected with harmful bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and/or Pseudomonas aeruginosa in their lungs which is very dangerous to other CF patients. 

Thank you Dolores for sharing this information with our club.