Citing a recent explosion in autism cases, Newsday’s editorial page calls for an accurate accounting of the number of autism diagnoses so that resources can be allocated effectively.

… the lack of standard reporting requirements for schools or pediatricians means that agencies and schools don’t know what they face, even in the immediate future. There is a glaring lack of hard data – actual figures – on the incidence of autism among children and adults in specific regions and communities on Long Island.

Without such information, it’s hard to plan for services or to provide funds for them – even though it’s apparent that the problem is growing to such an extent that some advocates call autism a major health care crisis with no end in sight.

An obvious lack of coordination between state, county and local agencies dealing with various services for autism begs for the creation of an inter-agency council that can share information and get a clearer picture of what’s needed. Standardized reporting and diagnostics must be adopted by schools and health services. Some pediatricians are loath to report autism for fear of breaking privacy laws, because autism is not a communicable disease.

The paper reports that the CDC is monitoring only 11 states for autism, and New York is not among them.

Autism is described in the editorial as a “lifelong heartbreak” and a “disorder that can wreck the lives of so many” — language that is sure to offend some autism activists.

See also: Hunting the gene that traps children in their own world: Parents and scientists are hoping that a new detailed analysis based on human genome will bring a big breakthrough within a year. From the Times (UK)

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 8:37 pm and is filed under autism, genetics, public policy, research news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.