by Kristen Mitchell
MIT02004@BYUI.EDU
Scroll Staff

The number of cases of autism nationally has increased dramatically in the last decade, according to WWLTV, a news station in Louisiana. Doctors and scientists speculate that vaccinations containing mercury may be a leading cause of this rise in autism.

“The theory that vaccines, or the mercury in some vaccines, could cause autism has naturally increased the anxiety in parents. Those with autistic children are looking for causes, treatments and cures. Other parents want assurance that their healthy child will stay that way once vaccinated,” Steve Berman, M.D., president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said.

Most doctors suspect that Thimerosal, a vaccination given to babies and young children, is one of leading vaccinations that contributed to increased incidents of autism.

Although Congress recalled Thimerosal in 2000, vaccines with mercury are still being used. These vaccinations expose children to unsafe levels of mercury, Congressman Dan Burton, chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, said.

Although no specific links have conclusively been made between vaccines containing mercury and autism, parents and doctors are still concerned that there might be a connection.

“Our children are the future of this country. As a government we have a responsibility to do everything within our power to protect them from harm, including ensuring that vaccines are safe and effective. Every day that mercury-containing vaccines remain on the market is another day the Health and Human Services is putting 8,000 children at risk,” Burton said.

Autism is a disease that affects a person’s ability to communicate, form relationships with others and respond to his or her environment.

Once a child is diagnosed with autism, he or she has this disability for life, and most doctors say there is almost no hope for recovery.

“I think it is important to work to find out what the causes for autism are, so that autistic children will be able to experience a fuller, normal life,” Kellie Scherbel, a sophomore from Afton, Wyom., who has worked with autistic children, said.