Aspies For Freedom

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent (off Yahoo News)
1 hour, 27 minutes ago


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first national surveys of autism show the condition is very common among U.S. children -- with up to one in every 175 with the disorder, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.


This adds up to at least 300,000 U.S. schoolchildren with autism, a condition that causes trouble with learning, socializing and behavior, the CDC said.

The CDC analyzed data on 24,673 children whose parents took part in two separate government surveys on health in the United States to generate its first national estimate of the prevalence of autism.

"Together, these two national surveys of parents indicate that at least 300,000 children aged 4 to 17 years old had autism in 2003-04," the CDC said in the report.

The surveys came up with similar results -- that autism has been diagnosed in anywhere between 5.5 per 1,000 and 5.7 per 1,000 children aged 4 to 17. This translates to between one in every 175 to one in every 181 children.

"(The surveys) affirm that autism is a condition of major public health concern that affects many families," Dr. Jose Cordero, director of CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, told reporters in a telephone briefing.

He said the findings fit in with previous estimates of autism, which were based on local surveys done in Atlanta and New Jersey.

The 1996 Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program survey showed autism had been diagnosed in 3.4 per 1,000 of the 3- to 10-year-olds included, or one in every 296. The 1998 Brick Township, New Jersey survey showed a rate of 6.7 per 1,000 children of the same age, or one in every 166.

None of the surveys pointed to a cause for autism -- a matter of deep controversy in the United States. Some groups have accused the CDC of covering up data that would link autism with vaccines, although studies in several countries have discounted such a link.

"We recognize that parents want answers," Cordero said.

"If children have autism, parents want to know what caused it and how they can lower this risk if they have other children. We share their frustration."

NO TRENDS

While there were some differences among age groups, the CDC said the differences were not statistically significant.

"Both surveys indicated that boys were nearly four times more likely to have been diagnosed with autism than girls," the CDC said in the report, published in its weekly report on death and disease.

"Both surveys indicated that Hispanic children were less likely to have an autism diagnosis." The survey could not indicate why that might be.

Laura Schieve, an epidemiologist at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities who helped conduct the study, said the study could not answer many questions about autism.

"Although often autism can be identified as early as 18 months, many children will not be diagnosed until they get to school," she told the briefing.

And parents of older children could easily have forgotten an early childhood diagnosis, she said.

"After children have received treatment for an extended time, they may show fewer symptoms of autism," she added.

"Also the criteria for autism have been broadened slightly."

i never got it...why is autism assoicated with trouble learning?  ugh.  i am like the anti statement to that.  everybody says i'm like the brain of the school, and i found it easier to learn in certian ways than other ways.  mabye we have trouble learning in the spefiic style they are teaching in schools now.  they are probaly just talking and talking and expect all children to learn that way...like manafacturing kids.  of course certian children are going to have trouble learning if only one style is ever taught.  i guess now socitey desires one type of child and everyone else is defective.  ugh.

i guess the cdc is also pushing the tragic autism tale by saying that nothing good comes out of having autistic children.  if this isn't changed, we can see our entire kind killed in the next generation.  they infer that autistic people are not healthy (false), which is a very dangerous view that refers to autistics as inferior beings that can be experimented on and disposed.  they also say that all parents are curebies, which is a bad view.

i hope this proves the mecury parents wrong that if the autism rates are still the same, it's not mercury...duh.

up to one in every 175

That is surely in California, the other recent US study showed 1 in 340 incidence.

CDC probably came into the picture to research if the allegations of vaccine/mercury/autism link were valid.  CDC have proved there is not relationship yet these people will still believe the vaccines cause autism.  

Before the anti-vaccine movement, there were people saying that lead paint causes brain damage (which is correct) and many products were removed from the shelves and contaminated soil cleaned up.  The silicone breast implants causing health problems.  So people might be hoping that the mercury link would be proved.   I have heard about mercury from tooth filling for years causing problems for years before the vaccine thing.  Only it was not linked to autism.  People were saying that tooth filling were causing chronic fatigue and other mystery ailments.  

There are some other agendas at work in this.  United States has a problem with illegal immigrant workers.  They tend to fill low level manual jobs that the employers say "Americans do not want".  This is rubbish.  Most of the immigrants are desperate.  

I find in my country many of the legal immigrants are highly intelligent and educated and are hired for low level unskilled labour jobs that ,of course, some Canadians would do.  But the employers prefer the more intelligent immigrants.   (maybe even more  NT).   While the employers might blame the countries education system for producing adults who are "unemployable".  Certainly most people are employable but some are just alot less trouble, fit in, require less training, and also the immigrants can be exploited more easily.  

This is the case:  I apply for a low level skill job.  I have a good education.  I am asked why if I am a native citizen and not an immigrant, why don't I have a better job?  An immigrant applies for a higher level job, which they have experience in their country and education for and are told that "they have no Canadian experience" so they can work out back.  

As soon as someone is labelled with "learning disability" or "autism" of any degree on the spectrum -  employers do not want them.  While years ago, they would just be given more training and have less responsiblity.  They did not have the labels then.

And we all know what that means.

Yes    http://www.autismprenataltest.com

also note that they express the wants of the minority as what all parents want.  i'm very sure most parents do not desire to cure their autstic children or prevent them from being born.  correct me if im wrong.

they act if everyone hates autism and wants it gone.

also notice the absence of acutal austistics.  i guess were less than human to them and need a cure to say what happens to us.  digusting.