On Wednesday, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Center for Health Statistics released a study entitled “Changes in Prevalence of Parent-Reported Autism Spectrum Disorder in School-aged U.S. Children: 2007 to 2011-2012.” They found that 1 in 50 children ages 6-17 now have autism.
Pediatrician and parent, Dr. Bob Sears says that he is panicking partly because he continues to see patients in his own office develop autism at an alarming rate and partly because he continues to see the children of friends and relatives develop autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Sears is the author of The Autism Book: What Every Parent Needs to Know about Early Detection, Treatment, Recovery and Prevention.
In a Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) blog, he writes, "On a very personal level, my own older children who are now 17 and 20, will probably start having kids of their own soon, and I can’t yet tell them what causes autism and how to completely prevent it." Dr. Sears believes that the CDC wants to help and that they will find the answer some day. He also believes, however that they are trying to portray autism as something that has always been around and is barely increasing because they do not want parents to panic and do not want people to stop having children.
He writes, "They don’t want people to start making up reasons why autism is increasing. They don’t want parents to look for answers on their own, " and adds, "The problem with this approach is that it leaves the million or more children with autism and their families out in the cold, feeling alone,like victims of an epidemic that no one will admit is happening. And it means that another million children will develop autism over the next ten years."
Dr. Sears says that back in medical school, he rarely heard the word autism and, now, not a day goes by without autism being discussed in his practice.
In eight years, autism increased by 160 times in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. See: http://www.examiner.com/article/in-eight-years-autism-increased-by-160-times-ho-chi-minh-city-vietnam
Source: http://tacanowblog.com/2013/03/20/so-autism-is-now-even-more-common-anybody-care-yet/
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