Study Shows Children with Cystic Fibrosis Develop Lung Bacteria Earlier than Others

“It’s challenging and rare to get access to such samples. Here in the United States, we don’t perform bronchoscopies on children diagnosed with CF if they don’t yet have clinical symptoms,” said Wolfgang. The UNC research team found that a majority of the samples from the children who were under a year old showed very little or no signs of bacteria in their lungs. “If there was no significant evidence of bacteria, there was also no sign of inflammation, and the child generally appeared healthy,” said Wolfgang. However, as the children got older (between the ages of 1 and 2), a bacterial pattern was found within the lungs (the same bacterial species that normally affect the mouth and throat). This bacterial pattern was found to trigger inflammation within the lungs. “We can’t go so far as to say that these kids have active infections, but clearly there’s a significant increase in the bacterial burden in their lungs, and we know these bacteria provoke inflammation,” said Wolfgang.