An intensive search for blacks with cystic fibrosis (CF) in Washington, DC, during the period 1962 to 1971 disclosed 16 black patients, eight of whom were born in the District of Columbia during this decade. The calculated incidence of CF is at least one in 17,033 black newborns.
The clinical course and pathological changes in blacks with CF are similar to those in whites. Genetic considerations point to autosomal recessive inheritance in blacks, which is generally accepted for whites with this disease.