Kathleen Sebelius: “Autism Now Hits 1 in 100 Children. We Have No Idea Why.”

By David Kirby

Washington loves to dump its bad news on a Friday afternoon, and today it confirmed that one 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,” declared 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 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, most 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 - 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 1998 and the latter cohort in 2000? 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 had 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:

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. (HERE)

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

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. (HERE)

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

Finally, why does your committee ignore evidence associating heavy metals and other toxins with ASD, 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.

David Kirby is author of Evidence of Harm, a founding contributor to Huffington Post and a contributor to Age of Autism.  His next book, Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment will be released within the year and is available now for pre-order at Amazon.

 

Comments

[mike pescatore]

http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/ajbb/ajbb4261-72.pdf

Yes synthetic DHA used in today's infant formulas may initiate oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Yes,this would result in severe digestive disorders. Yes, this would prime an infant for vaccination injury-ask Dr.Jon Poling.

[Quiet in the south]

Benedetta,
They recommended 3 gms but my son weighs 130 lbs. My husband who has depression which they now are linking as an inflammatory issue was told to take 6-7 gms a day! We do liquid to get these high levels. You figure out the amount by adding EPA and DHA together, so if each tsp is say 600 EPA and 400 DHA for total of 1000mg omega 3's you give 3 tsps to get 3 gms. They said the fish oil helps "put out the inflammatory fire in their brain"
But this was advice given to me by a doc who saw my kid. and obviously i can't give medical advice. www.amenclinic.com is a good site
Be aware fish oil can thin blood and they need to take vit e to prevent the fish oil from causing lipid peroxidation (rancid fat in ur body) and DHA is the most important part in building a healthy brain oh the things i have learned along the autism trail.

[Benedetta]

Quiet in the South;
How much fish oil? You said lots, what dose did they recommend?
My daughter is feeling really rotten. Her hands are all swollen and red.
Thanks,

[Quiet in the south]

I recently took my son to the amen clinic to have a spect scan to see what more we could do to help him. He is considered neurotypical except for the fact he can't make friends with his peers. I believe socialization is the final frontier of recovery
Guess what it showed "Inflammation" surprise, surprise. Having never mentioned the A word they said this is a pattern we see frequently in our ASD clients.
their recommendation chelation, GFCF diet, suppelements and LOTS of fish oil. I felt like i was back with my DAN doc. so we are revisiting all the things we did when he was a toddler.
A great book they also recommended "The ultramind solution" by dr hyman
It so sad to think of how many children will be damaged this year by the flu shots and the sad part is us moms are so prone to ADD and Chronic fatigue. The shots will assure these pregnant moms will be sick too as they try to carry for their injured children. Gives those "perfect" moms more to talk about. Just a little bit bitter and VERY VERY PISSED

[AlabamaAutismMom]

I see this these so called sympathetic statements from the CDC and I want to pull THEIR hair out. I have no tolerance anymore for this ignorance. They need to stop flapping their lips and do something. Let parents of ASD kids decide where government funding for research goes. Let us decide what they study. We know best anyway...aren't we the ones that are with our children everyday and can spot a symptom or a reaction immediately?!?!?! Either let us decide, or how about we stick these "researchers" in a locked room with 2 or 3 of our children on a "BAD" day and tell them that they can't come out until they figure out how to stop this and how to fix this Hmm...we might actually see some REAL results.

[jen]

gross, I think I just heard an ad for CVS pharmacy where they were bribing people with $100 for getting the flu shot. ANd I had to hear Snyderman on the TOday show. So pharma-driven.

[Diane]

Where do the ASD numbers come from? doctors? schools? insurance?

I ask this because my ds was diagnosed at 2 1/2 as PDD-NOS - common for young kids. Today he is truly classic autism (no missing a non-verbal, etc 8-year old). That being said - my pediatrician has never given my son that diagnosis (they preferred developmentally delay) - however, she'd certainly would have to concur with it now. We rarely see them (instead a DAN). The "autism" diagnosis came from school testing. So where would my ds be counted (DOB = 2000)? He would likely be missed if using medical practitioners, but not for school numbers.

I never got hung up on the label - just give me the services - call it what ever the hell you want - just get me access to the services was and is my goal to help my son succeed.

Also - I typically don't allow the diagnosis of autism to be used along with any medical claims because in my state anything with on it will be denied as MH/MR even if its for something like an ear infection - truly a medical issue!

[bek]

"I wonder if part of the reason they're pushing so hard on the seasonal and pandemic flu shots is to make a vaxed/unvaxed study even more difficult to do."

Garbo, perhaps. But I've heard so many more people question flu vaccines this year than before, people that in the past just accepted whatever their doctors told them to do...and if one is already a non-vaxer, I don't think they'd start now. I for one look at the H1N1 advertisements, I mean "news" and see right thru them.

[mary peck]

Birgit, ita. it is so sad how the kids and their families are "stigmatized". And I had one school nurse tell me that the stigmatization is "all in the mother's mind'. yeah, right. i guess i imagined the neighbors including all the other families besides ours in pool parties and baseball games.

[jen]

maybe we could help fund more of this primate resarch coming out of Pittsuburgh and Thoughtful House. They seem to be on track. And if you do have a march again, I'll come from Alberta. How many children with autism need to be born? ADHD? How many babies must die? (SIDS,"shaken baby syndrome")It's craziness and someone needs to stop it.