Hot Topics - Diseases and vaccines - Autism

Comment:  Without seeing the raw data, it is difficult to know what this study is demonstrating.  But unless they can show that "developmental disorders" went down about the same amount as autism went up, this study does not prove that changing diagnostic practices are "a major cause" for the rise in diagnosed autism.

►February 16, 2004 - For the Love of a Child - www.the-signal.com - "Emily Iland said her son was not diagnosed with any condition until the age of 13.  She said they both cried every day for years because no one knew how to help him."

►February 16, 2004 - Autism: Looking for answers to a growing problem - Looking for answers to a growing problem - Scripps Howard News Service via Courier & Press - "It's one of the worst nightmares a parent can imagine - without warning, a child is abducted from his bed in the middle of the night, never to return...Now, imagine that instead of taking the whole child, only his mind is stolen and his body - the hollow shell of his being - is left behind."

►February 16, 2004 - Scientists theorize a new form of autism may be emerging - Scripps Howard News Service via Courier & Press - "About half of all children with autism are mentally retarded, but many autistic children have normal or even superior intelligence. The share of autistic children who are not mentally retarded appears to be increasing, causing some scientists to theorize that a new form of the disorder is emerging...The societal costs are staggering. The average child with autism will require $4 million in lifetime supervision and care."

►Autism Growth and Incidence Graphs - Fighting Autism

►February 14, 2004 - His world is worth knowing - Times Union - "Turns out he once had wanted to be a journalist, perhaps a sportswriter, but he couldn't do it...Because if he had to interact with people every day, something might be said that would cause his head to flail and his mouth to clamp onto his arm as he tried to regain control of himself...So Cohen, a 46-year-old Boston University graduate, can't work...He has Asperger syndrome, a form of autism that causes him to have difficulty socializing, to read more than an English Ph.D., and to experience occasional emotional outbursts, which occur infrequently now that he's older and on medication."

February 9-15, 2004

Comment:  For other perspectives on this, see what the M.I.N.D. Institute had to say about this, as well as F. Edward Yazbak, MD (at the Online Autism Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com).

Comment:  Note that it is the CDC and AAP that are saying this. 

►January 29, 2004 - Coolidge v. Riegle - court of appeals decision re: autistic child who acted aggressively against his teacher

►February 9, 2004 - Special Training May Help People with Autism Recognize Faces - press release - University of Washington via Newswise►February 9, 2004 - Coping With Autism - Ivanhoe Newswire - "The most recent statistics show autism affects between one and three of every 500 people. It’s a lifelong disorder that makes social interaction and every day communication tough. It also causes aggression in many people. Now different therapies can help ease that autistic aggression."

January 26 - February 8, 2004 (2 weeks combined due to illness)

►February 15, 2004 - Public health monitoring of developmental disabilities with a focus on the autism spectrum disorders. - journal article (Am J Med Genet) - "Developmental disabilities (DDs) are conditions characterized by physical, cognitive, psychological, sensory, adaptive, and/or communication impairments manifested during development. Approximately 17% of individuals in the United States 18 years and younger have a DD, and for most children the cause of their condition is unknown."

Comment:  Almost 20% of our children are thought to be developmentally disabled.  Isn't this kinda, sorta a crisis?

►February 6, 2004 - Coeliac Disease - the Tip of the Iceberg - University of Bristol via www.newswise.com  - "The full extent of a hidden condition which goes largely undetected among British children - and unnoticed until adulthood - has been identified by doctors in Bristol...Their research suggests that until now the scale of coeliac disease among UK children has been under-estimated. Currently, fewer than one in 2,500 children is treated for the disease, but the study of children in Bristol has shown that it probably affects one child in 100, although most have no overt symptoms."

►December 28, 1994 - Autism and coeliac disease. - Collected Net Articles of Kalle Reichelt, M.D.

►February 3, 2004 - Disorder still largely a mystery - www.rockymountainnews.com - "They are children locked in a world of their own, victims of a mysterious brain disorder that steals their ability to relate to other people and their environment...And there are more of them all the time. The Autism Society of America reports that the incidence of autism is increasing 10 percent to 17 percent annually....'The numbers are really extraordinary,' Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, told a conference on autism convened in November by federal health agencies."

►February 6, 2004 - Fragile X/Autism Help - Ivanhoe - "Autism is a neurological disorder that affects about one in every 500 people. Another disorder, Fragile X syndrome, also called Martin-Bell syndrome, is less common, but has similar traits and can be just as difficult to live with. It affects females less severely, but for most males, social anxiety, behavior, learning and development are all impaired. Now one medication offers hope to these patients."

►January 26, 2004 - More and More Autism Cases, Yet Causes Are Much Debated (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Over the years, a host of other environmental factors have also been nominated as culprits, including a variety of infections, like German measles in pregnant mothers; the sedative drug thalidomide; the drug Pitocin, used to induce labor; synthetic compounds like plastics and PCB's; and food additives."

Comment:  Perhaps it is not just rubella (or German measles), but the rubella vaccine, which can cause autism.  For more on this go to Scandals: Is Rubella Vaccination Playing A Role In The Rise In Autism?

►January 26, 2004 - Coping with needs of two boys with autism - Toronto Star - "Lillian wanted to tell me a little about life with her beautiful boys, both of whom are autistic...She also wanted — very kindly and gently — to talk a little about the rest of us, about the judgments we make and the little things we do that can be very painful to parents of special needs children."

January 19-25, 2004

►January 22, 2004 - Scientific, Lay Press Starting to Label Autism "Epidemic" - Schafer Autism Report

►January 24, 2004 - Autism seems to be increasing worldwide, if not in London -  letter - F. Edward Yazbak, paediatrician - journal article (BMJ) - "Taylor's raw data have remained inaccessible since 1999, when he first denied any connection between autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination, in a study that neither had a population based cohort design nor sufficient statistical power to detect an association.^"

►Winter 2003/published January 21, 2004 at http://jpands.org/ - Autism in the United States: a Perspective - by F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP via Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons - "Once rare, autism has reached epidemic proportions in the United States.  The increase cannot be attributed to changes in diagnostic criteria, which have actually become more restrictive."

►January 21, 2004 - Autism reaching 'epidemic' levels - www.tcpalm.com - "It's one of the worst nightmares a parent can imagine - without warning, a child is abducted from his bed in the middle of the night, never to return...Now, imagine that instead of taking the whole child, only his mind is stolen and his body - the hollow shell of his being - is left behind."

►January 23, 2004 - Prevalence of serum antibodies to caudate nucleus in autistic children - the latest by Vijendra K. Singh - journal article (Neuroscience Letters) via www.sciencedirect.com

►January 20, 2004 - A World Apart From Autism - Asperger syndrome challenges experts to distinguish its symptoms and treatments - Newsday - "When Eric Schissel was a boy, ZIP codes fascinated him. And he had magnificent obsessions with mathematics, dictionaries, penguins and foreign languages. He was master of an amazing party trick: Pick any date in history, and he could tell you what day it landed on. But Eric Schissel wasn't invited to any parties."

►December 2003 - A review of research into pretend play in autism - journal article (Autism) 

January 12-18, 2004

January 5-11, 2004