Autism cases up 57% says report issued by Center of Disease Control and Prevention

CDC Study Reports 57% Increase of Autism; Photo by AP

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According to a new study released on Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cases of autism spectrum disorders rose 57 percent and 1 out of every 110 8-year-olds in the U.S. now has some form of autism.

Number of Autism Cases Increase

In 2009 an estimated 40,000 new cases of autism were diagnosed. Catherine Rice, a behavioral health scientist with the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, called the problem “an urgent health concern,” during a CDC media briefing Friday. Rice continued to say, the rate of increase in autism disorders are four to five percent higher in boys than in girls.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently studying risk factors both during the mother’s pregnancy and the first few years of a child’s life, according to Rice. She added some of the increase is due to more advanced testing of the disorder and doctors recognizing symptoms. She also clarified that there are multiple causes of autism spectrum disorders and that there is a possibility of a single cause of these disorders will not be found.

“A simple explanation is not apparent," Rice said. "We know that there are multiple complex genetic and environmental factors that cause autism.”

CDC Study Reveals 1 in 110 8-year-olds Have Autism

The 2006 study was conducted on more than 2,750 8-year-olds in 10 different communities across the U.S. and targeted autism spectrum disorders. According to the National Autism Association, this group of developmental disabilities is characterized by atypical development in socialization, communication and behavior.

Researchers chose children who were 8 years of age because most children with autism spectrum disorders which include both autism and other forms of the disease such as Asperger’s syndrome, have been identified and are receiving services by this age.

According to a report by Fox News, Mark Blaxill, a director with SafeMinds, a nonprofit organization that funds research on a possible connection between autism and mercury exposure from vaccines and environmental factors such as power plants, called the release of the CDC data on the Friday before Christmas shameful.

“I’d offer that the CDC is doing a terrible job on autism,” Blaxill told FoxNews.com Friday. “They’re doing the best they can to bury this. I would say that releasing something the Friday before Christmas is about as deep as you can bury something.”

Blaxill said the CDC and National Institutes of Health need to develop a plan of action and work harder to find out why autism spectrum disorders are increasing at such a rapid rate.

"Autism was first identified in the 1940s," said Blaxill, who has a 14-year-old daughter with autism. "Back then, 1 in 10,000 children were believed to have it and now 1 percent of our children have autism. And it's not only improvements in the way we diagnose autism. ... We're outraged and we want more research."  Blaxill said stronger studies on environmental and genetic causes of autism are needed.

“We’re not anti-vaccination,” Blaxill said. “I support vaccines. ... But we see what’s happened with the concern over Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and the overuse of antibiotics. One thing that’s changed dramatically over the years is the number of vaccinations we’re pumping into our kids. What we’re saying is, let’s investigate our vaccine program. Let’s evaluate safety.”

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