April 2 marked International Autism Awareness Day. It's not just the United States where autism numbers are rising every year; its a worldwide phenomenon.
It's hard to imagine by now that there is anyone left on the planet who is not aware of autism. If you don't have a child, grandchild, niece or nephew, cousin or a next-door neighbor with the illness, then you must have noticed a child in the grocery store pulling cans off the shelves and throwing a tantrum.
This is the reason I propose changing International Autism Awareness Day to International Autism Epidemic Day, and the month of April to Autism Epidemic Month. Perhaps once people admit it's truly an epidemic, they will demand that the government and health agencies at all levels begin to look more seriously at the numbers, seriously as any medical condition that has ever confronted our society.
Maurine Meleck
North Augusta, S.C.
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Ms. Meleck, can you provide the epidemilogical, as opposed to the popular, definition of epidemic?
What's your point Craig Spinks? Are you suggesting it's the awareness of the defect that is increasing and not the percentage of defects?
New Study out of Cambridge University -3/21/09
1 in 38 British boys has autism. Not a popular definition-numbers counted.
1980 1 in 10,000 had Autism
2009 1 in 150 girls have Autism
2009 1 in 96 boys have Autism
Sounds likes an Epidemic to me
Again, is it the way autism is defined that's changed, or the people counting the autistic? Or, has autism gone from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 96 in less than 30 years? Is this part of the "attention deficit disorder" epidemic? Politically correct illness is very popular right now, especially among the left. It's part of the "created" scare tactics used to control the dumb masses. When an actual problem comes along, who will think someone's crying "WOLF!" ?
You're right PT. I think alot are diagnosed as "high-functioning" autistic or mildly autistic to have an excuse for certain behaviors just like ADD. That being said, I hope they can still find a way to better help those that are truly autistic, like my nephew who is 5 and can barely speak or show emotion.
ADD and ADHD are NOT included in autism counts anywhere in the world. Wait until your taxes will have to start paying for the tens of thousands of childrren who will be 18 soon and on SSI. Do you think you'll have an actual probelm then?
The dumb masses are already controlled by such agencies as the CDC and that's why they won't admit to an epidemic. Wake up before autism affects someone in your own family, heaven forbid.
AIDS is killing everyone, all children have ADD, everything gives you cancer, meat is bad for you, only the government can solve your problems, the occurrence of autism has increased 10,000% in the past 30 years. While all of these important issues may be true, so far it doesn't appear they have much merit. Maybe this is how adaptation takes place.
msitua, what the heck. SSI can't get any worse. We can just add it to the already mounting debt. It will hardly be noticed.
http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/Human_Rights_Call.pdf?docID... talks about this as an epidemic. I'm no epidemiologist, but as a health issue I believe autism spectrum disorders are extremely serious and society should pay for screening, early intervention for therapy, research to determine causes, cures and appropriate therapies and social services to help families cope.
An epidemic is something that is infectious. Autism is not something that you can catch therefore it cannot be an epidemic.
An epidemic mean a wide spread occurance of a disease. It has nothing to do with whether it is catchy or not.
Autism is an epidemic, I repeat.
For all of you who think that ADD and ADHD are "made up", I invite all of you to go volunteer in a school. It is so sad to watch these kids constantly struggle with self-control. It is NOT bad parenting, it is NOT made up, it is NOT an excuse for bad behavior. Kids are born with it, and it's usually genetic and is on the X chromosome and it mostly affects boys. It runs in families. Back in the old days, kids that had it were just considered "bad" and had the crap beat out of them. If it were bad parenting or made up, how do you account for the fact that when they are put on medication, their behavior changes greatly for the better and everyone around them sees a noticeable difference?
ADD and ADHD are at the least affected end of the autism spectrum. There is probably a genetic suseptibility, but there is no proof that it is purely genetic.
heavy duty meds are also not the best way to go. Often they can cause other problems such as tics. Also, many of these drugs wear out their usefulness in time and children have to go from drug to drug .
Pleny of children with ADD and ADHD have gotten rid of their diagnoses with special diets and some treatments very similar to those with full blown autism.