Table of Contents Information on Cystic Fibrosis? How Common Is Cystic Fibrosis? Cystic Fibrosis Symptoms Suspecting a Child May Have Cystic Fibrosis Cystic Fibrosis Symptoms & Diagnosis What Makes Cystic Fibrosis a Genetic Disease? Cystic Fibrosis Treatment How the Gene Mutation Causes Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy as a Cystic Fibrosis Treatment Detecting Cystic Fibrosis in an Unborn Baby Can Cystic Fibrosis Be Prevented? How Patients and Their Families can Cope Keeping on Top of Your Conditio

Coping with Cystic Fibrosis

Patients and their families and friends should know that:

• CF parents should not feel guilty or responsible for causing their child's disease; they could not have prevented it.

• Parents should treat their children with CF as normally as possible. They shouldn't be over-protective but should encourage them to be active and self-reliant.

• Family and friends should remember that CF is not contagious; nobody can get it from a patient.

• In families with CF, brothers, sisters, and first cousins of the CF patient should be tested to see if they carry a defective gene, especially if they seem to have a chronic lung or digestive problem. Carriers of the abnormal gene should get genetic counseling.

• Individuals with CF have normal sexual development and can expect to have a normal sex life. However, most, but not all, men are infertile because of a mechanical blockage of sperm and cannot have children. Women with CF can have children, although they may be less fertile than women without CF.

• Patients and families should work closely with doctors and other medical specialists to develop self-management skills that can improve their quality of life.