Pressure is mounting on governments around the world to give more attention to research into the causes of autism, as figures show that the number of children with the condition is soaring.
Events held to mark World Autism Awareness Day on 2 April were overshadowed by new figures revealing that one in 88 children in the USA has autism, up from the previous figure of one in 110.
Researchers behind the new figure, released by the US-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention, say the increase is down to better detection and diagnosis of autism in young children.
But across the world autism advocates have poured scorn on this view, claiming environmental factors are at work to cause such a rise – a near doubling of the prevalence since the CDC began tracking autism numbers in the US in 2000.
Mark Roithmayr, president of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, has declared that autism is now an “epidemic” in the United States. He called on more government funding for research and treatment and said: “This is a national emergency. We need a national strategy.” In the US the annual cost of autism is a staggering $126 billion, according to Roithmayr, a figure that has tripled in the past six years.
Autism rates have increased from the first CDC-recorded study, showing one in 150 children affected in 2000, then one in 110 in 2006, and now one in 88. But this latest estimate is based on 2008 data, raising concerns that the figure is actually much higher and fuelling the view that autism is an epidemic and environmental factors are at work.
The CDC researchers found the state of Utah is swamped with autism, where the rate is one in 47 children. Elsewhere, the rising rates are even more alarming. In a study published last year, Yale University researchers found one in 38 children in Seoul, South Korea met the current definition for autism.
In the UK, 61,570 school children in the state-funded sector have been recorded as having some form of autism, according to the Department for Education. Five years ago the number was just 39,465.
A recent NHS study put the prevalence of autism as one in 100 in the UK. The same rate applies for adults as for children.
In the UK, the Treating Autism charity described the surge in numbers and the lack of awareness of how to treat the condition as “staggering”.
In response to the latest research documenting the rising rates in autism, the charity has launched its ‘Who’s Fooling Who?’ campaign. It aims to raise awareness of the way health-related issues are at the core of the surge in numbers and that autism can and should be treated.
A spokesperson for the charity said: “Our members know, based on current research and our own experiences, that autism is a treatable condition.
“However, our children are sadly neglected by the medical community, in spite of the fact that a growing number of forward-thinking medical professionals and researchers around the world are proving that autism is a full-body disorder that can be treated.”
The charity points to the views of Professor Jeremy Nicholson, head of the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, who has described autism as a “systemic disease”. Professor Nicholson, who will speaking on 9 September at the Treating Autism conference at Brunel University in Uxbridge, said the condition “isn’t just a sort of neuropsychiatric, behavioural and social disorder, but is associated with gastrointestinal problems in the majority of children”.
Growing concerns about the rise in autism rates prompted the CDC to set up a network of surveillance sites across America, with researchers periodically examining health and special education records of hundreds of thousands of eight-year-olds with signs of autism or a formal diagnosis. It found that boys continue to be more affected, with one in 54 young males diagnosed with autism compared with one in 252 girls.
Published: 2 April 2012
