06-09-2006, 03:52 AM
found this article in a maine paper, my highlights in bold. comments next post.
Quote:
We learned while researching this edition's lead story that there are more questions than answers when it comes to autism.
What causes autism? Can it be effectively treated? How should it be treated?
We did not find answers to these questions. Instead, we discovered some staggering facts that demand some sort of response and action from the medical community and the government.
The Maine Department of Education reports that in the five years from 2000 to 2005, the number of autism cases reported in Maine public schools rose from 594 to 1,473. The total number of students with autism increased by 879 cases in five years!
A line graph of the figures for our little state shows a steady increase from one year to the next. It's frightening to think that this trend might continue unchecked with more and more of our children falling victim to autism every year.
These are just the numbers that have been reported to the state by our public schools. We have no numbers to reflect students who are not yet in school, those who are home-schooled or those who attend private schools.
Some parents of children with autism and others in the community argue that there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism. The medical community emphatically argues that there is no link between vaccines and autism.
Our feeling after researching this story is that parents should listen to doctors and have their children vaccinated. Two of the three doctors we talked to for this story, including Maine's top health official, Dr. Dora Anne Mills, say there is no link between vaccines and autism. They speak not only for their own opinions, but for the vast majority of the medical community.
We know from history and from talking to doctors that children who are not vaccinated could end up dying from diseases we have considered conquered such as measles.
However, more studies are needed. The way things are now, parents have to simply trust their doctors even though they've heard these concerns raised in the media or in books or on the Internet or from a fellow parent down the street. Too many parents are biting their nails to see whether their toddler develops this devastating disability.
As autism continues to spread, striking more and more families, society must do more to study this problem and find out what is causing this illness and how it should be treated.
When pressed about the availability in Maine of treatments for those with autism, Mills said, "Well, the medical treatments available are limited."
That's not good enough.
Parents are not simply going to accept that there is no hope for their child. They have shown repeatedly that they will hang on to hope, and they will do anything to help their children. In some cases, parents claim to have made great progress with their children's illnesses.
During the course of working on this story, it seemed too often to be the case that the parents and the medical community saw each other as being at odds, when the two stakeholder groups in this crisis really need to be working together to find some answers.
What causes autism? Can it be effectively treated? How should it be treated?
We did not find answers to these questions. Instead, we discovered some staggering facts that demand some sort of response and action from the medical community and the government.
The Maine Department of Education reports that in the five years from 2000 to 2005, the number of autism cases reported in Maine public schools rose from 594 to 1,473. The total number of students with autism increased by 879 cases in five years!
A line graph of the figures for our little state shows a steady increase from one year to the next. It's frightening to think that this trend might continue unchecked with more and more of our children falling victim to autism every year.
These are just the numbers that have been reported to the state by our public schools. We have no numbers to reflect students who are not yet in school, those who are home-schooled or those who attend private schools.
Some parents of children with autism and others in the community argue that there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism. The medical community emphatically argues that there is no link between vaccines and autism.
Our feeling after researching this story is that parents should listen to doctors and have their children vaccinated. Two of the three doctors we talked to for this story, including Maine's top health official, Dr. Dora Anne Mills, say there is no link between vaccines and autism. They speak not only for their own opinions, but for the vast majority of the medical community.
We know from history and from talking to doctors that children who are not vaccinated could end up dying from diseases we have considered conquered such as measles.
However, more studies are needed. The way things are now, parents have to simply trust their doctors even though they've heard these concerns raised in the media or in books or on the Internet or from a fellow parent down the street. Too many parents are biting their nails to see whether their toddler develops this devastating disability.
As autism continues to spread, striking more and more families, society must do more to study this problem and find out what is causing this illness and how it should be treated.
When pressed about the availability in Maine of treatments for those with autism, Mills said, "Well, the medical treatments available are limited."
That's not good enough.
Parents are not simply going to accept that there is no hope for their child. They have shown repeatedly that they will hang on to hope, and they will do anything to help their children. In some cases, parents claim to have made great progress with their children's illnesses.
During the course of working on this story, it seemed too often to be the case that the parents and the medical community saw each other as being at odds, when the two stakeholder groups in this crisis really need to be working together to find some answers.