Genetics and incidence of cystic fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis is a genetically determined disorder. The evidence that cystic fibrosis 
is inherited in this way comes from several sources. The birth 
frequency of cystic fibrosis is unexpectedly high in Britain for such 
a serious illness. It is easy to calculate the proportion of 
the population who are carriers from the birth frequency of the 
disease. The explanation of the unlikely high birth frequency of cystic 
fibrosis in Europe is not known. An attempt to reduce substantially 
the birth frequency of cystic fibrosis will become possible once it 
is practicable to detect reliably the carrier of the gene. 