I have documented the epidemic of autism from 1992/1993 using the US Department of Education figures. Also I have found through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Social Security Administration that nationwide in the US, the numbers of adults/children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) collecting Social Security (SSI) benefits has skyrocketed from around 42,000+ in 2002 to 111,000+ in 2008.
In New Jersey, the state Division of Developmental Disabilities estimates nearly a quarter of 40,000 people it serves have autism as at least one of their diagnoses. Nationally, more than 250,000 students with autism were in schools in 2006-07, more than a 600 percent increase over a decade, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. And a 2007 National Survey of Child Health estimated that more than 680,000 children aged 2 to 17 have some form of autism — a rate of 1 out of every 91 children.
In deed, I would think it would be more important to find out how the medical community could stop this epidemic by prevention and treat the children and adults that have regressive autism like our son. If it isn’t done, all the denials about vaccines and autism will not stop this epidemic and it will be costly not only in economic terms but human terms.
Competing interests: Son who was born normal but regressed into autism after receiving the MMR vaccine based on home videotapes; and blood tests indicating elevated measles titer antibodies ten times above normal and testing positive for myelin basic protein antibodies.
Source: BMJ Rapid Response, by Raymond Gallup, parent of autistic child.
