Terry Wright, who has CF, gets a bone density scan with UAMS employee Melissa Bryan while his wife and advocate Michele Wright waits by his side.But many medical professionals are still incorrectly taught that CF is a white disease.
"People looked at him and said, 'Oh if you weren't Black, I would think you had cystic fibrosis," Bijal Trivedi told ABC Owned TV Stations. "Now, that doctor is not using evidence-based medicine to diagnose that patient. That doctor was looking at Terry's face, Terry's color, Terry's race, and deciding that he didn't have this disease."CF is an inherited disease caused by a mutation in the CFTR gene.
Ancestry plays a large role in which mutations develop, but in the U.S., many tests only detect a mutation common in white people. There are huge consequences for children who are not diagnosed early, including malnutrition and lung infections.
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