How do you get it?

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition. You cannot ‘catch’ CF – you are born with it. It is something that is inherited from both your parents. The mother carries a defective gene and the father carries a defective gene. If you have CF you will have inherited both of them.

It affects 1 in every 2,500 births in Caucasians, which means just over 100 people are born with CF every year in Australia. 1 in 25 people are carriers. This means that you carry a CF gene, but you don’t have the disease. If you are a carrier and your partner is a carrier, there is a 25% chance your child will be born with CF. It doesn’t matter if your child is a boy or a girl, if they have brothers or sisters, where you live or what you eat - CF is not affected by any of these things.

Not many people know if they are a carrier or not. Typically people only know they are carrier if they have a family member with CF, or if they have a child born with CF. If you a carrier of CF then your children have a 50% chance of being a carrier too.

You don’t need a family history of CF to have a child born with CF. Because CF is ‘recessive’, that is you need 1 gene from your mum and 1 gene from your dad, you may not know anyone in your family’s history who has been diagnosed.

Below is an example of how CF mutations may appear in the family tree: