Contact: Laurie Fink, CFF Media Relations, 301-841-2602

BETHESDA, Maryland, March 18 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation today announced the launch of a new $5 million initiative to enhance care for the growing adult CF population. The initiative, called the Program for Adult Care Excellence (PACE), will expand the scope of adult care programs for people with cystic fibrosis.

The number of adults with cystic fibrosis continues to increase as life expectancy for the disease continues to rise. To meet the growing demand for care, the Foundation will recruit and train CF care providers and fellows, with an overall goal of adding 40 new adult providers in care centers nationwide.

"The need for enhanced resources to treat the adult CF population is a direct result of our success in extending the life span of people with cystic fibrosis," said Preston W. Campbell, III, M.D., executive vice president for medical affairs of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. "What used to be a pediatric disease is now increasingly a chronic illness that brings its own set of challenges for adults."

In 1955, when the Foundation was established, children with CF rarely lived long enough to attend elementary school. Today, thanks to improvements in CF research and care, the median predicted age of survival is 37, and 43 percent of all people with cystic fibrosis are over the age of 18.

Over the past two decades the Foundation has made key investments in adult care to keep pace with the growing adult population. For example, in the 1980s, the Foundation began providing fellowships for internal medicine physicians to be trained in pulmonary medicine and CF care.

In 2000 the Foundation mandated that all care centers with more than 40 adult patients establish adult care programs. Today, there are 96 such programs in the country. This latest initiative is the most recent step in the Foundation's efforts to provide adult CF patients with the highest quality care.

"We are proud of the efforts of all providers in the adult CF care center community," said Robert J. Beall, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. "These new investments will add to the momentum we have been building." About the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is the leading organization in the United States devoted to curing and controlling cystic fibrosis. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., the Foundation has more than 80 chapters and branch offices throughout the country and supports and accredits a nationwide network of more than 115 care centers, which provide vital treatments and other CF resources to patients and families. For more information, visit http://www.cff.org.