There are many treatments for the symptoms and complications of CF that are designed for maintenance and management. Treatments may include aerosolized antibiotics, mucus-thinning drugs, bronchodilators, manual or mechanical bronchial airway drainage, oral enzymes and specialized nutrition and lung transplants. Death usually happens as a result of heart failure associated with a massive chronic bacterial infection of the lungs. Beyond treatments, lung and pancreas transplants are common surgical solutions for CF patients. The procedures do not result in cure of the disease, because the genetic defect and symptoms remains. Instead, the patient experiences a decrease of symptoms initially and gradual progression of the disease. However, CF patients are often unsatisfactory candidates for lung and pancreas transplants because of malnutrition and complications with other organs. Good resources for information on health and diseases are magazine titles like Respiratory Ailments Magazine, Bottom/Line Health and Health magazine.

Scientists continue to search for a cure for CF and new ways to improve the quality and longevity of life for CF patients. Research on CF is a multidisciplinary effort with scientists from molecular biology, immunology and medicinal chemistry working together. According to the National Human Genome Research Institute researchers are aggressively working on ways to cure CF by correcting the defective gene. Gene therapy for CF started in 1990 when scientists successfully fixed faulty CF genes by adding normal copies of the gene to lab cell cultures and in 1993 scientists reached a breakthrough when a CF patient received an experimental gene therapy treatment in which scientists altered a common cold virus to act as a vector carrying normal genes to the CF gene in the airways of the lung. Scientists continue CF research by testing ways to deliver genes through fat capsules, synthetic vectors and nebulizers. Still, many questions remain and the fight to find a cure continues.

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