The History of Cystic Fibrosis

Humans have died from CF for thousands of years, while, the fi rst clear references to the disease extend back only a few centuries. It was recorded in popular ancient folklore from Northern Europe which ensured that if you kissed a child with a salty taste, it was said to be “hexed” and would die an early death. In 1936 Professor Guido Fanconi established a relationship between celiac disease and cystic fi brosis of the pancreas and bronchiectasis and wrote about it in his work entitled “Familiar Pancreatic Cystic Fibromatosis with bronchiectasis”. Studying 47 families with patients suffering from this disease, Andersen and Hodges in 1946 concluded that for families, the situation was concordant with autosomal auto recessive inheritance.