May is Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Awareness Month and it is a time to celebrate the progress made to advance the care for people with CF but also to acknowledge the work that lies ahead.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-shortening, progressive, rare genetic disease that leads to multi-organ damage. Given CF is a genetic disease, people are born with it, making it critically important to seek treatment early to potentially slow the progression of this devastating disease.
There are about 88,000 people living with CF worldwide, with about 32,000 in the US.
CF presents a variety of symptoms including frequent coughing, coughing up mucus, shortness of breath, recurring infections, inflammation, and digestion issues.
The FDA recently approved expanded use for a CF treatment to include children ages 2 through 5 years old. This marks an important milestone — more than 900 additional children with CF can now benefit from the medication. The FDA also approved an expansion of another CF medication to include babies 1 to 4 months old.
While significant advances have been made, there still is more work to ensure all people living with CF have treatments.
In this interview, Fred Van Goor, Vice President of CF Research at Vertex discusses cystic fibrosis, the need for continued research and the latest treatments.
Interview is courtesy: Vertex Pharmaceuticals
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