Does anyone know if Hispanics carry the gene for Cyctic Fibrosis??!
Question:
Does anyone know if Hispanics carry the gene for Cyctic Fibrosis??
My mother is a carrier, but my father is hispanic and we have been told hispanics don't carry the gene, but I am curious if anyone else has heard that...
Answers:
Exactly. Anyone can be a carrier. In order to be a carrier, one or both of your parents have to be carriers. CF is a genetic disease so the mutations is passed down the generations. CF carriers do NOT have CF. They do not even have symptoms of CF. In order to have the disease, you MUST inherit TWO copies of the defective gene- one from each parent. And, even when you know that you have two carrier parents having a child, there is only a 25% chance the baby will have CF. There will be a 50% chance they will be born a carrier and a 25% chance they will not inherit either copy of the defective gene. If you are a carrier and are concerned about having a child, just have your partner tested. If they are NOT a carrier, it would be absolutely impossible to have a child with CF. If you are both carriers, you still have only a one out of four chance of having a child with the disease. Being tested for carrier status is just an easy blood test.
Absolutely a hispanic can be a carrier of the CF gene. In fact, your chances, as a hispanic, are one in 46 of being a carrier! That is about half the ratio for caucasion (one in 25) but still absolutely possible!