Is It an Autism Epidemic?
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sibelius revealed to the autism community that a pending report from the Centers from Disease Control sets the new prevalence of Autism at one in 100. Another report reviewed by the journal Pediatrics based on telephone interviews places the prevalence even higher, at one in 91.
The discussion now is whether there is really a surge in cases, or whether there is better reporting and a broader definition.
Both reports seem to indicate one thing: there are more cases of young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders than previously believed. Until these new numbers were released, the estimate was one for every 151 children.
The number will have some serious impacts on the profession of special education, on delivery of services to adults with intellectual and emotional disabilities, transition services, medical and independent living for this growing cohort of Americans with autism.
Comments
Here is a letter I wrote to one of my autistic support groups. The letter this is in response to, is below. Ir was i response to a comment about a census in England that indicated there are just as many Autistic Adults.
I’m not even surprised they are finding there are plenty of Autistic Adults. We have pretty much invented everything worth inventing all down through history and came up with most of the really daring new ideas. But I ask, HOW Autistic? Bill Murray Level? Einstein level? Rainman Level? Or nonverbal and pounding their heads against the wall to distract them from their gut pain level? This census lumped everybody at every level together.
My parents were definitely autistic. But they lived most of their lives in St Louis Missouri. Every house had its coal burning furnace. Studies show the closer Kids live to coal burning power plants the more of them are Autistic. Finding more adults in the older population does NOT get vaccines and other sources of toxins like MSG in most snack chips, shots and fast food of every brand and kind off the hook because earlier eras had their OWN sources of toxins. That’s where the phrase, “Mad as a Hatter” came from. Hat makers had a reputation for being “eccentric” because of the mercury used to make hats. I belong to several groups that try to fight autism. Why? Because my gut is on fire! That’s why!
I heard from someone who became autistic at the age of 12 after a measles vaccination. Yes. 12. Before then he had at least passed for Neurotypical. BUT I also heard from folks who became Autistic after the wild caught disease. And the wild caught disease has been around for millions of years I am sure. It probably did in many of our Neanderthal ancestors when Cro Magnons who may have been better equipped to handle it brought it with them up from the south.
My father was definitely along the spectrum but he was healthy enough to WORK. But I never have been and about the time I came along Mother soon got too sick and too inwardly directed to even be a half way decent housewife or mother with what now I realize are symptoms indicative of heavy metal poisoning. I am having to be chelated for mercury, lead, cadmium and aluminum which were almost off the charts when I first started. In my case it was mostly exposure to sludge fertilizers that did that to me but I too lived in St Louis for a time and remember those furnaces. I started off a fairly healthy little girl with a few social problems. But I got sicker and “weirder” as I got older. That was probably due to climbing heavy metal levels. My father made the innocent mistake of repeatedly fertilizing our lawn and garden with a sludge fertilizer and I played every day in that toxic dirt.
Tesla was VERY functional in his young adult days and through most of his middle age. But he got too weird to function as he got older.
Ditto for Howard Hughes.
The environment may be so poisoned now those who would be our best and brightest, most shining examples of why society NEEDS US TO EXIST may be getting too sick and too weird, too soon to make any contribution’s. The fact so many Kids have it bad enough they are being noticed and causing folks to think there’s an epidemic speaks volumes. There didn’t use to have to be so much special education and interventions. A teacher wrote she never before saw so many sick, weird and learning disabled kids in one class before in her life and other teachers tell her the same thing.
My theory is we are supposed to exist but not be so sick and the increased toxins in food and air and shots are making more of us much sicker much sooner than we would normally be. The parents in the groups I belong to have some really sick and HURTING kids. Some of them are nonverbal and violent or just in a great deal of pain. Even I am not that bad!
Yes we’ve always been around and SHOULD BE. But is each generation getting sicker? Or not? THAT is the question!
Elizabeth Hensley <
Here is the article this was in response to.
For the First Time, a Census of Autistic Adults
from /Time/
Among the many great mysteries of autism is this: Where are all the adults with the disorder? In California, for instance, about 80% of people identified as having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are 18 or under. Studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection indicate that about 1 in 150 children in the U.S. have autism, but despite the fact that autism is by definition a lifelong condition, the agency doesn’t have any numbers for adults. Neither has anyone else. Until now.
On Sept. 22, England’s National Health Service released the first study of autism in the general adult population. The findings confirm the intuitive assumption: that ASD is just as common in adults as it is in children. Researchers at the University of Leicester, working with the NHS Information Center found that roughly 1 in 100 adults are on the spectrum–the same rate found for children in England, Japan, Canada and, for that matter, New Jersey.
This finding would also appear to contradict the commonplace idea that autism rates have exploded in the two decades. Researchers found no significant differences in autism prevalence among people they surveyed in their 20s, 30s, 40s, right up through their 70s. “This suggests that the factors that lead to developing autism appear to be constant,” said Dr. Terry Brugha, professor of psychiatry at the University of Leicester and lead author of the study. “I think what our survey suggests doesn’t go with the idea that the prevalence is rising.”
http://snipr.com/scug4
I wonder if Autism as it is addressed in public schools can still be considered “low-incidence.” If it is truly as pervasive as recent research indicates, then public schools can expect LESS money for educational supports and services, right? Be careful what you wish for.