Who Discovered Cystic Fibrosis?

In 1905, Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian physician and biologist described meconium ileus for the first time. Karl Landsteiner also discovered the Poliovirus and won the Nobel peace prize in medicine for his discovery of Human blood groups. 

Later in 1936, Swiss physician Guido Fanconi described the relationship between cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, and bronchiectasis in one of his papers. However, the first person to actually identify the disease was Dorothy Hansine Andersen, a physician from the US. She was also the first American to describe the disease accurately and this is why most experts credit her for the discovery of the Cystic Fibrosis disease.

Dorothy Andersen was born on May 15^th, 1901. She had a B.A from Mount Holyoke College and an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. She practiced at Babies Hospital of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. She was also a faculty member at the University of Rochester and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. She was actively involved in training heart surgeons and the study of nutrition. In 1938, she published an article in the American Journal of Diseases of Children.

The article was called “Cystic Fibrosis of the Pancreas and Its Relation to Celiac Disease: a Clinical and Pathological Study” where she first mentioned Cystic Fibrosis, explored its characteristics and its connection with lung and intestinal diseases. She was also the first physician to consider it as a recessive disease and to use pancreatic enzyme substitute as a treatment. She died in 1963. In 2002, She was included in the National Women’s Hall of Fame for her contribution to medical science.

Dr. Dorothy Hansine Andersen died in 1963 from Lung cancer. She was a heavy smoker.