U.S. aid urged in battling autism

State can't handle the rise in cases, an Assembly panel is told.

By Aurelio Rojas -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Wednesday, November 20, 2002

A nearly threefold increase in autism cases in California is straining state resources and will require an infusion of federal funds for research and care, a legislative panel was told Tuesday.

The state Department of Developmental Services' caseload surged 273 percent from 1987 to 1998 and is continuing to grow by about nine cases a day -- a finding confirmed by a University of California, Davis, study that made headlines around the country last month.

Autism most commonly appears in children between the ages of 2 and 12. Experts say the state can expect to spend $2 million on each person afflicted with the disease during his or her lifetime.

"So it doesn't take a math wizard to determine that's $18 million a day (in new projected expenditures)," Rick Rollens, a board member of the Autism Society of America, told the Assembly Health Committee.

The brain disease leaves many patients unable to speak or compulsively performing repetitive motions, such as flapping their arms. Experts believe the disease has reached epidemic proportions nationwide, but California is the only state that has compiled comprehensive data.

Rollens, a former state Senate staff member who became an advocate after his son was diagnosed with the disease, said that until recently the National Institutes of Health was spending $5 million a year on autism research. He said the amount has increased to more than $55 million.

"(But) a multimillion-dollar effort is needed," said Rollens, who will meet with NIH officials in Washington on Friday to press his case.

Chuck Gardner, who also has a son with autism, testified that the disease is overwhelming the 21 regional centers in the state that diagnose developmental disorders and provide children with services.

Gardner co-founded the institute for the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders at UC Davis Medical Center with Rollens. Funded primarily with state dollars, the institute will open a $42 million complex in Sacramento next spring to study and treat autism, dyslexia and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

"We need more funds for the MIND Institute, and not necessarily from the state," Gardner told the Assembly committee chaired by Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles.

"Autism doesn't stop at the state line, and the work we're doing has national and international implications. It doesn't seem equitable that the state of California should bear the whole costs."

Dr. Robert Byrd, a pediatrician who was the lead author of the UC Davis study, told the panel the findings surprised researchers.

The study was prompted by a 1999 report by the Department of Developmental Services that concluded autism cases in California had increased from 2,778 in 1987 to 10,360 in 1998.

"It appears that we have numbers of children with autism that far exceed anything we have seen, and they continue to grow," Byrd said. "And we don't have a good explanation."

Byrd said most parents surveyed were similarly unsure of the cause, although some blamed genetic defects and a smaller segment "felt vaccinations had some role."

The number of vaccinations mandated for children under 2 has soared from eight to 26 during the past two decades. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccination, in particular, has drawn increasing concern.

Many parents have reported their child "regressed" into autism after a period of normal development, shortly after receiving the MMR vaccine. But most medical experts do not believe vaccines are to blame for the skyrocketing incidence of the disease.

Researchers at UC Davis are conducting a study in hopes of determining what role, if any, vaccines and environmental factors such as pesticides might have in the surge of cases.

Rollens is convinced that his 12-year-old son, Russell, is autistic because of an MMR vaccine he received. But he also believes there are other causes for the epidemic and says the federal government must step up its research efforts.

"If we keep adding nine kids a day (in California), we're going to break the bank," he said.