NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER
E-Newsletter May 2, 2007
California Reports Another Record Autism Increase
Rick Rollens, co-founder of the M.I.N.D. Institute at UC- Davis, reports that California is continuing to experience record numbers of cases of children being diagnosed with the most serious form of autism.
According to information released last week by California's Department of Developmental Services (DDS), during the 91 day period that was the first quarter of 2007 (Q 1), 886 new children with a professional diagnosis of full syndrome DSM IV autism, which does NOT include PDD, NOS, Asperger's Syndrome or any other autism spectrum disorder, were added to California's developmental services system.
There were a total of 1570 total new intakes during the first quarter of 2007, which included children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, epilepsy, and a myriad of rare genetic conditions such as Fragile X, and Down's Syndrome. Of the 1570 total new intakes, 886 or 56% were full syndrome autism cases.
The 886 new intakes during that 91 day period represents the second highest number of new intakes for a quarter reporting period in the 38 year history of California's developmental services system. On average, California is currently adding 10 new children a day, seven days a week with full syndrome autism to it's system.
In 1971,California included autism as a qualifying condition to it's developmental services system. During the 16 year period from 1971 through 1987, California had a total caseload of roughly 2700 persons with autism.
Rick said "During the past nine months alone, from July 2006 to April 2007, California added roughly 2700 new autism cases. What used to take 16 years in caseload growth now takes 9 months!"
Twenty years ago in 1987 there were 2700 persons with autism in the California system. Today, there are nearly 34,000 and 92% of the children were born after 1980, with 84% under the age of 21 and 78% under the age of 18.
"We are still waiting for the missing 14,000+ adults with autism that should be in our system if there has not been a real increase in autism to show up now that we know what autism looks like," added Rick. " Still no sign of them. The fact is, they do not exist. In California's system today. Less then 2 out of 10 persons with autism are 22 years of age or older, the remaining 8 1/2 out of 10 are between the ages of 3 and 21."
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