A Time To Be Bold
CDC officially releases its latest autism prevalence numbers.
The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) report was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Dec. 18. The report is a rigorous epidemiological look at the numbers, and it shows an autism prevalence of1 in 110 or nearly one percent of 8-year-old children in the United States. The data for the report was collected in 2006 and studied almost 2,800 children born in 1996 across 11 states.
Before the latest numbers were released, the prevalence rate stood at 1 in 150. That data was collected by the CDC in 2002 and was based on 8-year-olds born in 1994. The figures represent a 57 percent increase over the last two years, and means that roughly 40,000 children were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in 2009. The data is slightly lower than an estimate made last fall before the report was released.
Playing Telephone
When the results of a telephone survey conducted by the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) were released in October of last year, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, held a press conference. She estimated that the CDC’s forthcoming ADDM study would report a prevalence of 1 in 100. During the press conference, Sebelius said that it was still not clear whether the estimates were proof of a true increase or better diagnosis and increased awareness. She referred to autism as an “urgent public health challenge.”
Another media briefing was held on the Friday before Christmas, the day the ADDM report was released. This time, Catherine Rice, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) at the CDC announced the results of the report. Rice parroted Sebelius’s comment that autism is an “urgent health concern,” and repeated the CDC’s stance that some of the increase is due to better diagnosis. She added that the CDC is now studying risk factors during pregnancy and the first few years of life. Rice said that there is no simple answer about what causes autism, but “we know that there are multiple complex genetic and environmental factors that cause autism.”
Skyrocketing Numbers
SafeMinds, a non-profit organization that supports research on the effects of mercury, says that the increasing rates of autism cannot be explained merely by genetic factors or improved diagnostic criteria and that environmental factors must be studied. In a press release issued the day before the ADDM results were announced, SafeMinds stated, “The skyrocketing increase in autism in the 1990s and 2000s came at a time when mercury emissions have been increasing worldwide, the content of mercury in infant vaccines more than tripled, and the number of vaccines given to children went from 18 shots to 36 shots today.”
Shortly after Sebelius announced the estimates for the ADDM report in October, Theresa Wrangham, president of SafeMinds said that the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), the panel responsible for recommending how the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) autism research dollars are spent, needs to acknowledge the gaps in vaccine research. “We have NVAC (National Vaccine Advisory Committee) stating that there are gaps, and they need to be taken up. We need to increase the level of scientific curiosity,” said Wrangham. These gaps in vaccine research found by NVAC were reported in its review of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office (ISO) Draft Research Agenda. SafeMinds is also calling for the government to immediately fund a comprehensive vaccinated versus unvaccinated study of children.
Objectives Removed
At the IACC meeting held on Nov. 11, Thomas Insel, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Chair of IACC, encouraged the committee to “be bold” with their recommendations for autism research. The estimates for the ADDM report had been released a few weeks prior to that meeting. IACC has repeatedly received harsh criticism from the autism community for its negligence in dealing with environmental factors, including vaccines.
In January 2009, two objectives specifically recommending vaccine research, objectives that might be considered “bold,” were removed from the Strategic Plan in a surprise re-vote. At the November meeting, though, the committee added an objective that recommends studies to determine susceptibility to “environmental exposures such as immune challenges related to naturally occurring infections, vaccines or underlying immune problems.”
Since the results of the ADDM report were released, Insel has gone on record as saying that he believes that there has been a true increase in autism prevalence, there is in fact an environmental factor to autism, and that children can recover from it. These are, in fact, bold words from a chair of a committee that much of the community perceives as having repeatedly failed to take serious action. It is up to IACC acknowledge and respond to the urgency of the autism epidemic in the new year.
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