Treatment improved for cystic fibrosis patients

Around 9,000 people have the condition but each must carry out a long and complicated regime of as many as a dozen treatments each day to prevent their condition worsening.

The new hand-held inhaler will cut treatment times in delivering antibiotics to their lungs in an effort to prevent chronic bacterial infections which are a common and sometimes fatal complication in patients, causing the majority of deaths from the illness due to loss of lung function.

Cystic fibrosis patient Aaron Brown, 26, who is also a doctor in A&E at York Hospital and is planning to go on to work as a GP, said the treatment regime was a burden for sufferers.

He takes around 30 tablets at various times throughout a day and inhales drugs to treat his lungs via a nebuliser three times daily as well as exercising.

He said the development was the latest advance for patients. Two decades ago he used a device as loud as a mower with an exhaust pipe which had to be placed outside as it used compressed air to deliver drugs to his lungs.

“The main benefit is that it is a better medicine but also cheaper,” he said.

Jo Osmond, director clinical care and commissioning at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, said patients had a “very difficult and time consuming” regimen of treatments and physiotherapy every day and the time saved using the new device would be significant.

“This may help people with CF to more easily fit their treatment into the day,” she added.

More than two million people in the UK carry the faulty gene that causes cystic fibrosis – around 1 in 25 of the population.

The disease clogs internal organs with thick sticky mucus notably within the lungs and digestive system, making it hard to breathe and digest food.

Symptoms include malnutrition and a cough, usually developing within the first year of life.

At present the average lifespan for patients is 38 although babies born today with the condition can expect to live longer.