About CF

Cystic Fibrosis

CF makes you have sticky mucus.

It can stick to your bronchial tubes. Your bronchial tubes are the branches in your lungs that look like trees. When you breathe, they fill with air. The sticky mucus sticks to your bronchial tubes. Then when you try to breathe, it’s hard to breathe. Your chest feels really tight.

CF is not contagious- you can’t give it to other people. You are born with CF- but not everyone knows that they have CF when they are young. You have it in your genes (not your blue jeans!). Genes have information that tells your body what to do and how to work. You get one set of genes from your mom and one set of genes from your dad. If you have CF that means that you got a CF gene from both of your parents. If someone only has one CF gene, they don’t get CF. It’s nobody’s fault how you get different kinds of genes.