Newswise The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today that the prevalence of children in the United States with autism has increased. The newly-released statistics suggest one in 88 children have an Autism Spectrum Disorder, up from one in 110 released in 2009.
Zachary Warren, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Centers Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders at Vanderbilt University, says effective early identification and treatment of autism is a public health emergency.
The new CDC data is the best evidence we have to date that autism is a very common disorder. While recent estimates have varied, we have always known the individual, familial, educational and societal costs that go along with autism are tremendous, Warren said. We are now seeing autism in more than 1 percent of the population, which highlights how challenging it will be for systems of care to meet service needs.
Most educational and medical systems do not have the resources capable of meeting the comprehensive needs of individuals with autism and their families across the lifespan, Warren added.
Programs aimed at enhancing early identification of autism are often thought to be a critical first step in autism treatment, as intervention during early childhood may result in tremendous differences over time. Given the prevalence rates, many medical centers have struggled to meet needs for such identification, with waits of six to 12 months.
Through a combination of clinical programs, training models, research projects and community partnerships, Vanderbilt has created a system of care designed to minimize the distress that families must endure when waiting to be evaluated for autism.
We at Vanderbilt have decided that early identification is a priority, and weve worked very hard to achieve the goal of shortened waits for families and providers, Warren said. When a family or a pediatrician calls Vanderbilt for an autism evaluation for a young child, my hope is that we will continually be able to offer families what most medical centers cannot an appointment.
As a parent I cannot fathom how stressful it would be to be told that your child may have autism, and well let you know the answer to that question in six to 12 months. Given the public health implications of the disorder, what we should be asking is would you like to be seen this week or next.
As recently as the 1970s, autism was believed to affect just one in 2,000 children. This newly released data is based off children born in 2000 and means autism possibly affects roughly 1 million U.S. children and teens.
Boys with autism outnumber girls 5-to-1, according to the CDC report, which estimates that 1 in 54 boys in the United States have autism.
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Vanderbilt Expert Weighs in on New CDC Findings for Autism Prevalence