Cystic fibrosis - Better late than never

EVEN though it has taken a 15-year campaign, the news that the 75,000 or so babies born every year are to be screened for cystic fibrosis is very welcome.

It is doubly so as we have one of the world’s highest incidence of the disease, a rate four times that recorded in America or in the rest of Europe.

Despite this, we have a very poor record in providing appropriate care for cystic fibrosis sufferers in many of our hospitals. Isolation units are not always available and those with already weakened immune systems run the risk of contracting further infections.