Vienna, Virginia http://www.909shot.com “Protecting the health and informed
consent rights of children since 1982.”
BLFisher Note:
Frombonne is whistling in the dark. Any parent who has dealt with the
education system in the US knows that, because of the costs to taxpayers
associated with providing special services to a disabled child, only the most
conservative criteria is applied to labeling a child “autistic” or “learning
disabled.” During the past two decades, schools have become so inundated with
autistic children, they can’t build and staff special education classrooms fast
enough. There is no question there is an epidemic of autism and other kinds of
neuroimmune dysfunction in our children. The medical establishment, charged
with maintaining the public health, simply can’t deal with it and denial is the
easiest recourse.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010206/hl/autism_1.html
Tuesday February 6 1:18 PM ET
Autism ‘Epidemic’ Based on Data Misinterpretation
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The rise in the number of
reported cases of autism over the past 30 years was caused by doctors adopting
a broader definition of the disease and using better diagnostic tools, a
scientist reports.
His letter in the February issue of Pediatrics disputes
the widely held notion that rates of autism have soared to epidemic
proportions, a belief that is based on misinterpretations of data.
“The debate on the hypothesis of a secular increase in
rates of autism would benefit from a clear recognition of the methodologic
limitations of existing data,” writes Dr. Eric Fombonne, from the Institute of
Psychiatry in London, UK.
The so-called epidemic of autism has prompted
investigators to search for a cause. While some studies have suggested that a
vaccine routinely given to infants may be responsible, others have found no
association between the measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism.
The notion that MMR vaccine could cause autism was fueled
in part by a study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and colleagues from the Royal Free
Hospital, London, UK, which suggested a possible link between the MMR vaccine,
chronic inflammatory bowel disease and autism.
But more recent trials have failed to support such an
association. Last month, the largest study conducted to date concluded that the
vaccine is not linked to a higher risk of autism.
Still, many parents remain fearful that the vaccine could
be unsafe.
“There is no real information linking vaccines to what
causes autism,” Dr. Luke Tsai, a
professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical
Center in Ann Arbor, told Reuters Health. “We just don’t know at this point
what causes it; that is the main problem.”
He said that if the disease was caused by a vaccine, “we
would see hundreds of thousands of kids with autism. And we don’t.”
Autism is a neurological disorder that impairs language
development and prevents patients from socializing normally. It typically
appears during the first 3 years of life and affects 1 in 500 people, according
to the Autism Society of America.
Tsai and other researchers concede that the number of
children diagnosed with the disorder has indeed increased. But they point out
that there has also been a rise in the numbers of children who are diagnosed
with a host of developmental, speech and learning disorders. Like autism, many
these disorders arise for reasons that currently elude researchers.
But the idea that rates of autism have soared is based in
large part on a report by the Department of Developmental Services from
California, whose data have been mishandled, Fombonne explains.
“This report was flawed with methodological errors and
weaknesses which were not detected,” he said.
First, the conclusion that autism has reached epidemic
proportions is based on numbers and not rates. It does not take into account
increasing populations, Fombonne notes.
Further, researchers made no attempt to account for
changing diagnostic criteria used over the years. Nor does the data reflect the
fact that children are now diagnosed at a much earlier age than 30 years ago,
he writes.
“Prevalence data nevertheless point to the magnitude of
the problem, which had clearly been underestimated in the past. But there is no
need to raise false alarms on putative epidemics nor to practice poor science
to draw the attention to the unmet needs of large numbers of seriously impaired
children and adults,” Fombonne states.
SOURCE: Pediatrics 2001;107:411-413.
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