FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
February 6, 2002
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
In yesterday’s FEAT Newsletter commentary “US Media
Reaction to Wakefield Study: News Blankout Almost Total” there was a comment
that from Andrew Wakefield’s newly published research there are findings of
measles virus in 83% of autistic children. There were also two headlines with
the same omission. They should have read that the percentage applies to
children with autism AND inflammatory bowel disease. (Thanks to Alison Tepper-Singer.)
Also, the commentary was inadvertantly left unsigned. Yesterday’s commentary and today’s addendum
are the opinions of the author Lenny Schafer and does not necessarily reflect
the views of FEAT (but they probably do).
Readers are welcome to submit their own commentaries on
any autism subject. Submissions are
either publised here or on the FEATBack news email discussion list (FEATBACK-subscribe-request@LIST.FEAT.ORG). Readers can also post their comments
directly to that list blind, without having to subscribe. Send to: FEATBACK@LIST.FEAT.ORG.
Readers will not be able to “see” any responses, unless he/she subsribes.
* * *
Although no numbers were cited in yesterday’s commentary
in support of there being an autism epidemic, it is worth addressing. There are a spectrum of ratios served up
from various sources, but it is not know how many children in the United States
currently have autism spectrum disorders.
The CDC says studies done in Europe and Asia since 1985 indicate that
there may be as many as 2 to 6 per 1000 children who have one of the autism spectrum
disorders.” http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dd/ddautism.htm
(Thanks to Al Iberri).
The numbers we do have from counts made by the California
Department of Developmental Services, which have been recent published here,
show a rate of growth that can be interpreted as being an epidemic.
“An all time one-year (1970-2001) record number of cases
(2,725) were added to California’s system in 2001. This number represents a 20% increase in one year over the previous
record year of 2000. The just completed 4th Quarter of 2001 (Oct. 4,
2001 to Jan. 3, 2002) also set an all time record for numbers of new cases for
any 4th Quarter in the history of the system. During 2001, each of the
four quarters posted all time record setting increases. There were more cases of level one autism
added in 2001 then in all of 1994, 1995, and 1996 combined.”
FEAT Daily Newsletter, Jan. 14, 2002. “Autism
Epidemic:
Record Increases Continue in California”
http://www.feat.org/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0201&L=FEATNEWS&P=R6996
In addition, here are some recently released numbers from
the US Department of Education. The meteoric rates of increase here cry out “epidemic”
as well.
The following is taken from the statistics produced by the
Department of Education in the United States, for numbers of children aged 6-21
served by IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) who have autism.
1992/1993 1995/1996
Total Total % Increase
12,222 28,813 136%
1992/1993 1996/1997
Total Total % Increase
12,222 34,354 181%
1992/1993 1997/1998
Total Total % Increase
12,222 42,487 248%
1992/1993 1998/1999
Total Total % Increase
12,222 53,561 339%
1992/1993 1999/2000
Total Total % Increase
12,222 65,396 435%
1992/1993 2000/2001
Total Total % Increase
12,222 78,717 44%
Latest figures for year 2000/2001
http://www.ideadata.org/tables24th\ar_aa3.htm
http://www.IDEAdata.org/tables/ar_aa2.htm year 1999/2000
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/Research/ Data tables before 1999/2000 (AA2)
Note: 1992/1993 AA2 numbers are made from hard copy from
the US Department
of Education
State
1992-1993 2000-2001 % Increase
Alabama 68
765 1,025
Alaska 8 195 *
Arizona 199
1,119 462
Arkansas 30
671 2,137
California
1,605 10,557 558
Colorado 14
453 *
Connecticut 164
1,225 647
Delaware 15
263 1,653
District of Columbia 0 103 *
Florida 582
3,926 575
Georgia 262 1,916 631
Hawaii 52
276 431
Idaho 39
291 646
Illinois 5
3,103 *
Indiana 273
2,621 860
Iowa 67
537 701
Kansas 74
619 736
Kentucky 38
864 2,174
Louisiana 409
1,145 180
Maine 37
444 1,100
Maryland 28
1,933 *
Massachusetts 493
575 17
Michigan 288
4,075 1,315
Minnesota 296
2,448 727
Mississippi 0 385 *
Missouri 336
1,589 373
Montana 20
163 715
Nebraska 4
337 *
Nevada 5
394 *
New Hampshire 0
342 *
New Jersey 446
2,925 559
New Mexico 16
225 1,305
New York
1,648 5,943 260
North Carolina 786 2,374 202
North Dakota 9
118 *
Ohio 22
2,217 *
Oklahoma 31
666 2,048
Oregon 37
2,516 2,516
Pennsylvania 346
3,304 855
Puerto Rico 266
473 78
Rhode Island 19
309 1,526
South Carolina 141
852 504
South Dakota 36
227 531
Tennessee 304
935 208
Texas
1,444 6,023 317
Utah 105
584 456
Vermont 6
160 *
Virginia 539
1,983 268
Washington 476
1,620 240
West Virginia 101
312 209
Wisconsin 18
1,823 *
Wyoming 15
94 527
*Almost infinite
50 States, DC & PR overall increase
TOTAL
12,222 78,717 644
(Thanks to Ray Gallup.)
* * *
Finally, there is this comment from reader William Bolman wmbolman@hawaii.rr.com
expressing his concern over the relevance of the MMR/Vaccines issue.
There is so much rich work on autism therapies in the
communication and behavioral areas, especially in the major autism journals, I’m
disappointed that you seem so preoccupied (obsessed?) with the MMR stuff.
Would love it if you could expand your vision! -William Bolman
Dear William,
Thank you for taking the time to express your
concern. We are having so much coverage
over the MMR issue because currently the British public is obsessed with
controversy over it, not us. This has
been generating so much media coverage over there. Since the newsletter is mostly an autism news clipping service,
we mostly reflect what’s out there being published. In other words, please don’t shoot the messenger! As it is, we
only use a handful of the flood of media reports being generated from the UK.
As for communication and behavioral matters, we love
reading about developments in these areas and we clip and re-publish almost
everything new we can find. If there is
material you know about that you think we should include, by all means, send it
to us for consideration.
Last summer we uncovered that the National Institute of
Health had dropped funding all behavioral research. We mounted a successful mail campaign and managed to get some
projects refunded. No small feat, one could say. How much supportive of non-vaccine issues can one get?
But we do need to plug some of the potentially big holes
creating the autism flood so that we don’t have to bail so much with
after-the-fact behavioral solutions to keep our kids afloat.
Lenny Schafer
Izak’s dad
Editor
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