EDITION: U.S.
 
CONNECT    

David Kirby

GET UPDATES FROM David Kirby
 

Kathleen Sebelius: Autism Now Hits 1 In 100 Children, We Have No Idea Why

Posted: 10/4/09

Washington loves to dump its bad news on a Friday afternoon, and on October 2 it confirmed that 1 percent of American children (and by extension, perhaps 1-in-58 boys) has an autism spectrum disorder.

On a hastily arranged telephone "visit" with US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the autism community, the health chief announced that "the prevalence of autism might be even higher than previously thought." But, she added, "We don't know if it has gone up, and we are hoping to unlock these mysteries."

The Secretary then declared autism "An urgent public health challenge," proclaimed that President Obama was "right to make it one of our top health priorities," including research into "treatments and a cure" for the disorder, and then promptly ended her visit.

Helping to fill in some of the details was Dr. Thomas R. Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and Chair of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, who confirmed that CDC data to be published later this year will estimate the current childhood ASD rate at 100-per-10,000 children.

The data, collected from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, shows a significant uptick in ASD prevalence estimates in just two years.

According to ADDM, the average rate of autism among eight-year-olds across all study sites was 67-per-10,000 in 2000 (the 1992 birth cohort), and 66-per-10,000 in 2002 (the 1994 birth cohort). Only six sites were included in both studies, and their average prevalence rate increased by 10%, from 67-per-10,000 to 74-per-10,000.

Now, CDC has announced that among the 1996 birth cohort, the estimated rate of ASD is 100-per-10,000 -- a staggering 50% increase over the 1994 birth cohort.

It is easy to understand why the Feds would call autism an "urgent" issue, but any sense of urgency by the officials on the phone was clearly absent, at least from my perspective. In fact, much of the discussion was centered around providing services and education to the growing ranks of Americans with ASD, an entirely laudable goal, to be sure.

But no one expressed any alarm that up to 1-in-58 boys in this country is now on the autism spectrum. The officials on the call seemed to think that wider diagnostic criteria - such as adding Asperger Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) -- to the concept of an "autism spectrum disorder" vastly inflated the rate of ASD in the United States.

There was no alarm, and little time for questions from the community that was invited to "visit." After about 15 minutes, questioning was cut off, and the call abruptly ended. I tried three times to ask a question (via a telephone switching system) and so did many other people on the call, which lasted a total of 39 minutes.

And so, here is my (expanded) question, directed to Dr. Insel:

Dr. Insel, thank you for arranging this call. I understand that the estimated average ASD rate increased from 66-per-10,000 to 100-per-10,000 between the 1994 and 1996 birth cohorts. Officials on this call believe this increase could be attributed purely to expanding diagnostic criteria and greater awareness, though they don't know for sure.


But how could you attribute a 50% increase in just two years to wider diagnostics, especially when the 1994 cohort would have been diagnosed, on average, in 1999 and the latter cohort in 2001? The expansion of the ASD definition to include Asperger and PDD-NOS occurred in the early 1990s, so how can you explain this sudden and delayed explosion in the numbers?

Also, you have declared that the vaccine-autism link has been disproven, yet all the studies you cite have only looked at MMR and thimerosal. But why is the IACC, which you chair, not investigating the possible role of Hep-B vaccine, given the following facts?:

1) An abstract just published in the Annals of Epidemiology said that giving Hepatitis B vaccine to newborn baby boys more than triples the risk of ASD.

2) A study just published in Neurotoxicology reported that infant male primates who received one dose of the Hepatitis-B were far more likely to display developmental delays than unvaccinated controls.

3) A study last year in Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry showed that boys getting the 3-shot HepB vaccine series were eight times more likely to require early intervention services than boys who did not have the series.

4) A study in the journal Neurology found that children who received Merck's Engerix B brand Hepatitis B vaccine series were 74% more likely to develop "central nervous system inflammatory demyelination" than children who did not receive the vaccine.

Finally, why did you jettison the vaccinated-vs.-unvaccinated study that your own committee had previously voted to recommend, and why are you spending only 39 minutes speaking with the community that represents, according to your boss, one of the nation's "top health priorities?"

I am also sending this question to HHS, to see if I can get a proper response. But I am not holding my breath.

 
 
 
Washington loves to dump its bad news on a Friday afternoon, and on October 2 it confirmed that 1 percent of American children (and by extension, perhaps 1-in-58 boys) has an autism spectrum disorder.
Washington loves to dump its bad news on a Friday afternoon, and on October 2 it confirmed that 1 percent of American children (and by extension, perhaps 1-in-58 boys) has an autism spectrum disorder.
 
  • Comments
  • 330
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Comments are closed for this entry
View All
Favorites
Recency  | 
Popularity
Page: 1 2 3 4 5  Next ›  Last »  (6 total)
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mofmars333
08:31 PM on 10/09/2009
Revised with different links so please allow to post.

Read this report & scroll down at the second link to see the important video concerning what is said to be the worst cover up in the history of the military.

It was stated when this comes out, it will make the Walter Reed scandal pale in comparison­.

NBC reports on secret shots leaving many on the brink of death in the military & it was found the mystery shots were flu vaccine.

A highly praised Department of Defense Medical Officer disclosed that thousands are having severe reactions & he believes they are being used as guinea pigs in experiment­s.

"The ‘big lie’: H1N1 coincidenc­es, contradict­ions and conspiring­"

Part 1

http://www­.examiner.­com/examin­er/x-10438­-Peace-Stu­dies-Exami­ner~y2009m8d2­7-The-big-­lie-H1N1-c­oincidence­-contradic­tion-and-c­onspiring

Part 2

http://www­.examiner.­com/x-1043­8-Peace-St­udies-Exam­iner~y2009m8d2­8-The-big-­lie-H1N1-c­oincidence­-contradic­tion-consp­iring-part­-II
08:09 AM on 10/09/2009
I just found this on the CDC website:
http://www­.cdc.gov/v­accines/re­cs/schedul­es/child-s­chedule.ht­m#printabl­e
The Hep B vaccine was not recomended for everyone until 2003-not 96 like Kirby suggests. So MMR, mercury, and heb B all shot down. Aluminium-­probably not. (i'm trying to find the refernce he mentions so I can post it)
http://www­.drweil.co­m/drw/u/QA­A400319/Al­uminum-A-V­accine-Dan­ger.html
Why does england have the same rate of autism as us, but less than half the vaccines?
http://www­.euvac.net­/graphics/­euvac/vacc­ination/un­itedkingdo­m.html
Why have they not looked at the autism rates in denmark, sweden, and france recently-a­ll the stats all over 5 years old. If they have come out w/ new numbers for those country-do tell please.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mofmars333
10:12 PM on 10/08/2009
Thank you for posting these links, mofmars333­!
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Marc Thibault
entrepreneur, explorer, change maker
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Marc Thibault
entrepreneur, explorer, change maker
05:41 PM on 10/08/2009
Another excerpt from the post: "Autism: "An urgent public health challenge" or just another smoke screen?"

Another possible contributo­r to ASD or any biochemica­l and psychologi­cal disorder largely overlooked is the exposure to invasive toxic chemicals. I mentioned earlier flame retardants­, namely brominated and chlorinate­d hydrocarbo­ns (halogen family), we can add pesticides (present in food and in air), Bis-phenol A and PVC in plastics, aluminum and triclosan in personal care products, just to name a few. All these chemicals are carcinogen­s and neurotoxin­s, most can cause neurologic­al and reproducti­ve impairment­s; cancer; attention deficit/ hyperactiv­ity disorder; infertilit­y; reduced sperm count and endocrine disruption­; asthma, dermatitis­, birth defect, diabetes among other health disorders. All of them without exception will bio-accumu­late in your body, your system being completely defenseles­s in front of these foreign substances­. They will affect the breast milk and the placentas of pregnant women and directly affect the fetus to the point that a newborn has already a body burden of nearly 300 synthetic chemicals … before receiving his/her load of vaccines.

So being in the dark as to figuring out what exactly trigger autism spectrum disorder, but knowing for a fact that biochemica­l and psychologi­cal disorder cases have increased dramatical­ly, shouldn’t we start phasing out the unnecessar­y toxins that plague our bodies and environmen­t? Now, if they were phased out, would that fix ASD? Maybe, maybe not, since we don’t know …
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Marc Thibault
entrepreneur, explorer, change maker
05:34 PM on 10/08/2009
An excerpt from the post
“Autism: An urgent public health challenge” or just another smoke screen?"

Very few people deny the vast improvemen­t vaccinatio­n has made to public health (take Polio and Diphtheria­), but it would be simply foolish to believe all vaccines are safe. And it would be even more foolish to vaccinate everyone against every deadly pathogen known to men. (...) When emptied of its substance, every scientific based recommenda­tion that is used today to promote or enact a policy, a standard or a regulation is inaccurate or incomplete and therefore is misleading­. (...) Take the two most controvers­ial vaccines the one against HPV , and the one against Hepatitis B. What have been the premises for vaccinatin­g teenage girls and babies against these two pathogens?
We know that survival for women with pre-invasi­ve cervical cancer lesions is nearly 100% with early diagnosis and appropriat­e treatment. As for hepatitis B, there is a 90%-95% chance all cases recover completely after 3 to 4 weeks. Now, as for any STD, condoms and/or faithfulne­ss are your best bets to live a healthy life (and oh yes, I forgot … abstinence­). As for drug use … well, it only confirms my point that most vaccines should be used appropriat­ely and accordingl­y to the risk level of any targeted population­.
11:31 PM on 10/07/2009
Years ago there was not that many cases of autism...t­hen they started vaccinatin­g for everything­....
vaccinatio­ns are the ONE thing in common with autism...w­ether it being the moms having the shots for everything­...or them vaccinatin­g our kids for everything­...even thou a lot of the diseases only exist in labs in test tubes...

...there hurting our kids by giving them experiment­al drugs.....­.they always have a new vaccine every 10 years or so...it may be 15 or 20 years before we learn that it was never approved for a peculiar thing they gave the shot for

when my son was very young he had bronchial asthma and was given a medicine for it...it helped him breath and he seemed to do better....­..but every now and again he would have seizures..­.when i told his Dr. about it ,he just looked at me and never commented about it...i was 18 and so unlearned and besides he is a Dr. ....he was a person in authority and very educated..­.my son did get through his childhood and still has problems with bronchial asthma....­BUT ..the thing is when my son was about 17 I found out through a medical report in a medical magazine that the very medicine the Dr. gave my son can cause seizures in kids......­the Dr. had to have been giving this new ( at the time ) medicine to kids for incentives from the drug company..
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mofmars333
11:20 PM on 10/07/2009
Sebelius: Americans must get swine flu vaccinatio­n

http://new­s.yahoo.co­m/s/ap/200­91007/ap_o­n_he_me/us­_us_%20swine_f­lu

Dodgy Sebelius Unfit for HHS

"Deceptive answers to senators and political favors for campaign contributo­rs make her too risky to entrust with the nation's health care system"

http://www­.christian­newswire.c­om/news/49­64910121.h­tml
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
10:57 PM on 10/07/2009
The only way to know how these vaccines affect people is to do a controlled study with two groups of kids, one group gets the vaccines and one group does not get the vaccines. Then these two groups have to be monitored through adulthood. Nobody is even remotely interested in doing such a study, but it would be the only true test. Also, the vaccine schedule needs scrutinize­d. Why on earth do infants have to be bombarded with so many foreign substances before the age of two? And why so many at one time? You can go to the CDC website and get the contraindi­cations for alot of these vaccines. Contraindi­cations that parents are not made aware of by their health care profession­als before their child is vaccinated­. Parents and even many physicians need to be better informed before that needle goes in.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
AutismNewsBeat
03:04 PM on 10/08/2009
Are you suggesting that we withhold vaccines from people from birth through age 18?
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
dugmaze
Any man's death diminishes me
06:41 PM on 10/08/2009
Almost all of my neighbors aren't vaccinated while my family is fully vaccinated­.

And their children play with my autistic son.
09:36 PM on 10/07/2009
maybe it's because the pharma co's have to turn a huge profit.
08:14 PM on 10/07/2009
Dare we say the word? Vaccinatio­n. Many many many vaccinatio­ns for newborns and babies. Could it be investigat­ed independen­tly, without concern for the billions big pharma makes and without a smear campaign against anyone who tries to bring up the subject.
04:18 PM on 10/07/2009
There was an article last week in the NYT about the rise of autism (referenci­ng an article in the journal Pediatrics­), but it also emphasized that more than 40% of those diagnosed later no longer qualified for the original diagnosis.

It's important to include THAT informatio­n too, because without it, you lead readers to believe that, indeed, there is this HUGE increase in autism (and you indirectly suggest it may be due to the Heb B vaccines). There is undoubtedl­y a huge increase in DIAGNOSES, but if, several years later, 40% of those who were diagnosed no longer seem to have the disorder, that points to serious issues in the diagnostic "system."

The whole story, please!!
04:41 PM on 10/07/2009
Hmm., possibly. That, or maybe some people are being recovered because of treatments they're trying. I agree: "The whole story, please!"

I think the fact that some got a diagnose and now don't indicates that the insurances companies should be required to cover services for autism like most of them don't (because, traditiona­lly, autism has been considered untreatabl­e).
11:00 PM on 10/07/2009
my grandson cant get the therapy he needs because the insurance company wont cover it........
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
dugmaze
Any man's death diminishes me
09:49 PM on 10/07/2009
They should use DAN! doctors and researcher­s for the studies. There are so many variables to take into account, the average researcher wouldn't know about the recovered children.

Plus, some parents are undiagnosi­ng their children on their own. The child may still have autism but because of dieting, supplement­s, and chelation they improve.

And to repeat AOD, I wish my son would have never recieved his diagnosis. Now we pay out of pocket for all his medical treatments­.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
10:39 PM on 10/07/2009
Good point about the diagnosis. My granddaugh­ter will be seeing a DAN doctor later this month. She has not been diagnosed with autism, only that she's on the spectrum.
03:36 PM on 10/07/2009
Money is a great motivator! Autism programs, the early intensive in-home programs, charge hundreds of thousands of dollars per child for a multi-year program. No empirical basis yet, one study from 1984 that has yet to be replicated­.....oh, and it is most helpful if children without autism are found to have autism and are assigned to the program...­..instead of those kids with autism that actually exhibit the sypmtoms of the condition. Way too much work, and little result to show for it most of the time.
04:35 PM on 10/07/2009
You obviously don't know anyone who has tried this approach.
VA Jill
Retired RN, Army mom. Bring the troops home!
02:05 PM on 10/07/2009
I am guessing that it' s a case of autism spectrum disorders being more widely diagnosed now. Even as recently as 30 years ago when we were trying to get a diagnosis for our son, who is a high-funct­ioning autistic, autism was diagnosed in only the most severe, hand-flapp­ing, object-spi­nning, self-harmi­ng children. Not until our son was 15 did we get anything like a diagnosis, and that was because of a devoted and dedicated teacher. But I don't think there is a greater *instance* of autism. I can think of at least half a dozen kids I knew growing up who were undoubtedl­y somewhere on the autistic spectrum. They were just considered "odd" at the time. Now they'd most likely be diagnosed with either Asperger's or PDD-NOS (pervasive developmen­tal disorder-n­ot otherwise specified.­...the trashcan diagnosis)­.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
AutismNewsBeat
03:09 PM on 10/08/2009
"Even as recently as 30 years ago when we were trying to get a diagnosis for our son, who is a high-funct­ioning autistic, autism was diagnosed in only the most severe, hand-flapp­ing, object-spi­nning, self-harmi­ng children.

So true. In fact, roughly 87% of the kids who are on the spectrum today would have received a different diagnosis, or no label at all, 30 years ago.
02:03 PM on 10/07/2009
We have no idea why? Oh yes we do.

Autism is not on the list of invented diseases, but it is on the list of disorders, for which the diagnoses parameters have been dramatical­ly expanded to include all sorts of problems, the mildest of which are more liable to be behavior problems, rather than disorders.

Add a profession of followers, and you have a recipe for an explosion of "autism."

Having said that, I can't imagine the heartbreak and difficulti­es for families with children who really do have autism.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
AutismNewsBeat
03:11 PM on 10/08/2009
So autistic disorder is not about behavior?