By Anita Manning / USA TODAY
http://detnews.com/1999/classrooms/9908/19/08190201.htm
A stunning increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism has
schools straining to provide services and health officials urgently seeking answers.
And the increases are fueling a grass-roots movement of parents
determined to expose what they believe is a connection between autism and vaccines.
Autism, a developmental disability that usually appears before a
child's third birthday, profoundly affects communication and social skills, impairing the
child's ability to play, speak and relate to the world.
The U.S. Department of Education reports a 173 percent increase in
autistic children served under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act between the
1992-93 school year, when 15,580 children were counted, and 1997-98, when the figure was
42,500.
In California, state senators are calling for research to find out why
there was a 273 percent jump in children with autism in the past decade. And Rep. Dan
Burton, R-Ind., who held a hearing on vaccine safety last week, is leading an effort in
Congress to find answers.
"It's truly an epidemic," says Bernard Rimland, founder of
the private Autism Research Institute in San Diego.
Some experts doubt that. Lou Danielson of the Education Department's
office of special education programs says his office's statistics are suspect because
until 1991, there was no category for reporting autism.
"Children with autism were always there," he says, "but
they just weren't being counted in this category."
Yet the demand for more resources for autistic children is real: Martin
Babayco, head of the special-education program in the Ojai (Calif.) Unified School
District, says he has sent three teachers to the University of North Carolina for special
training, and he has formed an autism task force.
"Within the last two years, our numbers have gone steadily
up," reaching 25 in the upcoming school year, he says. "Is this a large number?
Yes, 25 in a small school district like ours, it is an extreme number. We don't know why.
I've talked to other educators, and they have a similar upswing."
Scientists are puzzled -- and worried. "I think the increase is
real. I don't think there's any question," says Marie Bristol-Power, coordinator of
the Network on Neurobiology and Genetics of Autism at the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development.
People have cited other possible explanations, such as pesticides and
pollutants, she says. "Right now, we're trying desperately to find out the
cause."
Rimland, a research psychologist and the father of a 43-year-old man
with autism, says he knows. Autism rates are rising, he says, "because of the overuse
of vaccines."
He and many other parents of children with autism are convinced that at
least some cases are caused by the multiple vaccines given children -- up to 21 before
they start school -- and the combination vaccines, such as the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR)
shot.
Jeana and Darrell Smith of Baton Rouge feel sure their son Jacob's
autism isn't caused by genetics. Their proof? Jacob's identical twin brother, Jesse, shows
no signs of it.
The boys, age 4, have slightly different medical histories. Jacob got
his first vaccine, for hepatitis B, at the age of 1 month. His brother didn't get any
vaccines until 3 months of age. At 15 months, they both got MMR. "At that point
(Jacob) did not progress with language and developed weird behaviors," Jeana says.
"I feel the hepatitis B knocked out his system, so when the MMR came along ... "
The Smiths have two younger children, a boy, 3, who has had the first
few vaccines normally given to children, and a daughter, 7 months old, who Jeana says
"is vaccine-free."
Refusing to vaccinate a child is "not something taken
lightly," she says, but given her experience, she's "not willing to take the
chance vs. the risk of the disease. If one of them steps on a rusty nail, I'll take him
down and just get the tetanus shot."
Walter Orenstein, director of the National Immunization Program at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says there should be more research on autism
in general and any connection with vaccines.
But "keep in mind there is a serious cost to the lack of
vaccination, and we know what that cost is."
"I know what happened in my son's case, and I know from talking to
countless other parents that there is a strong temporal relationship between the onset of
autism and vaccination," says Rick Rollens of Granite Bay, Calif., whose 8-year-old
son, Russell, began showing signs of autism at 7 months old after routine vaccinations.
Linked through Internet chat rooms and web sites, parents of kids with
autism are drawing the attention of state and national education officials and politicians
to what they believe is a looming crisis. They're demanding research into origins and
treatments for the neurological disorder. "We've been jumping up and down about
wanting good science to look into this," Rollens says. "Show us the science that
says this stuff can't cause the kind of brain disorders we're seeing."