CDC calls new autism findings "urgent public health issue."   A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, which found that one in every 150 children in the U.S. has autism, received nearly ten minutes of coverage on the network news broadcasts Thursday, as well as coverage in many of the nation's major dailies. For example, ABC World News (2/8, lead story, 2:15, Gibson) reported, "We got results, today, from the largest study ever done on autism. And, the headline is: It is more common, more prevalent, than any other study has shown to date." ABC (McKenzie) added, "The new numbers out today are more alarming than the government ever recognized."
      Lee Grossman of the Autism Society of America, was shown saying, "It validates what we've been saying all along, that the numbers of people being diagnosed with autism is much higher than what had previously been stated. The survey, the first in a new wide-ranging government effort, looked at school and medical records of children in 14 states. ... What's behind the higher numbers? That's what researchers are trying to find out: Whether doctors are more willing and able to diagnose the disorder or whether more children actually have autism." Grossman continued, "Whatever the explanation, many in the medical community say the new numbers are staggering. Congress last year allocated $990 million to look for the causes and better treatments for autism. Today, advocacy groups are already calling for more. We need to go back to Congress and to the agencies to ask for more services for this growing population." ABC's McKenzie added money is needed "for more research into possible risk factors for autism; better screening to identify children early before they turn 3, when intervention is most effective; and, more special education programs which require such intense effort."
      In a segment analyzing the study's results, ABC World News (2/8, story 2, 1:30, Gibson) questioned "how significant the medical community thinks these numbers are." ABC's medical correspondent, Dr. Tim Johnson, answered, "[t]he experts we have been talking to today think the numbers are very significant because they will indeed support the demand for more research and services. ... As a practical matter, once kids are identified with autism, they will need services. A couple of experts are very worried about what will happen to these kids when they become adults and they're no longer being supported by the school system."
      The CBS Evening News (2/8, lead story, 3:10, Couric) noted the new CDC estimate of one in every 150 children represents "60,000 more than the previous estimate." CBS (LaPook) added, "[P]revious studies have estimated the rate was one in 166 children." Dr. Gary Goldstein, president of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, was shown saying, "What we're doing in these numbers is just establishing the amount of children out there, the number of families that are seeking services." CBS (LaPook) interjected, "The study sheds light on a huge problem -- children are being diagnosed too late." Goldstein explained, "Anybody who carries that diagnosis at 8...could have been, diagnosed at 2. I mean, 95 percent of them could have been diagnosed at 2. And yet, here they are not getting diagnosed until 5. And then why is that important? [It's important] because we have early interventions."
      LaPook continued, "Studies show that the earlier the intervention the better the outcome." Goldstein noted, "It's not like a broken leg or cancer or diabetes in a child where quick -- pretty quickly -- you'll have a diagnosis. You've got to be a very persistent parent." LaPook added, "But there's hope. This year, federal funding has been increased 50 percent for research, screening and treatment for autism, raising hopes that there can be more success stories." Couric asked, "What does this study tell you about our country's capacity to help and educate these children?" LaPook answered, "Even before the latest study, doctors and parents have known for years that we really do not have the ability to provide enough services for kids with autism. And now it turns out there are even more kids with autism than we thought. We have to think long and hard about how to help these kids."
      NBC Nightly News (2/8, story 3, 3:00, Costello) reported, "Today the first definitive multi-state study found is far more common than first thought. ... with boys four times more likely to be diagnosed than girls. The rate was lower in Alabama and West Virginia but higher in New Jersey. The question is whether those variations may be due to differences in reporting."
      Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, chief of the developmental disabilities branch of CDC, was shown saying, "We do know that the number of individuals that are receiving services for autism has increased over time. What we don't know is whether the number of new cases of autism has actually increased over time." Costello said, "The definition of autism, a neuron-developmental disorder that takes on many forms, has expanded over the past 20 years, but expert Dr. Gary Goldstein believes there is a real trend." Goldstein was shown explaining the study as he did on CBS. Costello noted, "Genetics appear to play a role. Beyond that, parents and doctors remain divided over the cause." He added, "[t]his study did not attempt to find a cause but rather to establish how serious of a health issue autism has become."
      The Washington Post (2/9, A6, Weiss) reported that "the results are the first to come out of the CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, launched in 2000. That program aims to get the most accurate statistics possible on the prevalence of autistic behaviors by collecting information on thousands of children from schools, medical clinics and social service providers." Notably, CDC, which published the study in today's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, said, "The sheer number of children apparently affected -- 560,000 nationwide if the new statistics are extrapolated to all 50 states -- makes autism an 'urgent public health issue' and a 'major public health concern.'" However, the agency also noted that the "new data, from 14 states, do not mean that autism is on the rise, because the criteria and definitions used were not the same as those used in the past." But, significantly, the prevalence of autism "varies mysteriously from state to state." West Virginia, however, "appeared to tally a significant increase from 2000 to 2002, the two years for which data have been compiled so far. Most of the other states showed no change in that period."
      Meanwhile, the survey, "which is to be updated regularly, offers no clues about what causes autism or the range of related disorders that together cost the nation tens of billions of dollars a year"; in particular, it "sheds no light on the controversial claim that trace amounts of mercury in childhood vaccines are behind the growing number of diagnoses in recent decades," but it "may help settle that question in future years, because most vaccines have recently eliminated the ingredient."
      In a front page story, USA Today (2/9, Manning) reported that "Peter Bell, president of Cure Autism Now, says the report is 'confirmation of our worst fears, and that is that autism is on the rise. Every two or three years, we're given an estimate that is higher than the previous one.'" And, CDC Director Julie Gerberding "said in a statement that it's still unknown whether there's an actual increase in autism or just better studies. 'We do know, however, that these disorders are affecting too many children.'" USA Today also includes a data box – "Profile emerges of ASD children."
      The New York Times (2/9, A12, Carey) notes in the 1980s, the rate in autism was estimated to be one in 200. And, while "[r]esearchers say that both genetic variation and developmental factors combine to cause the disorders," they "know little more than that."
      The Wall Street Journal (2/9, B4, Dooren) adds that while "officials said they do not know why New Jersey has a higher rate," in "Alabama, researchers didn't have access to special-education records, which might account for the lower rate." Also, "the other 12 states -- Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin -- had a range of 5.2 to 7.6. Of the 407,578 children in the study, 2,685 were identified as having an autism spectrum disorder. The types of autism disorders aren't broken out." Moreover, "Catherine Rice, a CDC scientist and the study's lead author, said it is hard to tell if more children really have autism than in the past or if there is a change in the way they are diagnosed with autism." Rice said the CDC "is continuing to track autism rates in 8-year-olds and is collecting data from 2004 and 2006." The data in the current survery were from 2002.
      The San Diego Tribune /AP (2/9, Stobbe) reports that Alison Singer, spokeswoman for Autism Speaks, said that "[t]his data today show we're going to need more early intervention services and more therapists, and we're going to need federal and state legislators to stand up for these families." Also, the data "included were autism-linked conditions like Asperger disorder, which some experts say might partly account for the higher rate." And, Dr. Fred Volkmar, director of the Child Study Center at Yale University, said the "educational records researchers relied on in some states may be misleading. Sometimes, if a child has problems that seem like autism, parents will push for an autism label to get additional educational services."
      The Salt Lake Tribune (2/9, Rosetta) adds that for "most of the 196 children," the researchers found, there was "a documented history of concerns about their development before age 3. The median age when they were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, however, was around age 4," and by "age 8, most children were receiving special education services."
      Newsday (2/9, Talan) notes that "[t]wo decades ago, experts believed that autism was a rare disorder, which in the 1980s was classified as a psychiatric illness. Now, it is accepted as a neurological condition, a developmental problem that causes significant delays in communication, social interactions and behavior problems."
      Medpage Today (2/9, Osterweil) provides "actions points" to aid physicians with talking to patients about the study, and about autism in general. Notably, "As in 2000 and in earlier studies, autism spectrum disorders prevalence was higher among boys than among girls, ranging from a male-to-female ratio of 5-1.4 in Alabama, to 16.8-4 in New Jersey." And, "as in 2000, autism spectrum disorders prevalence was higher among white children than either Hispanic or black children. For whites the prevalence ranged from 3.3 to 12.5 per 1,000, compared with 3.4 to 7.7 per 1,000 for black non-Hispanics, and 0.3 to 9.7 per 1,000 for Hispanics."
      Bloomberg (2/9, Lopatto), WebMD (2/9, Hitti) and HealthDay (2/9, Reinberg) also report the study. Conversely, HealthDay (2/9) also includes a review of an article on autism, published in the February issue of Nature Reviews Neuroscience, which "suggests that the media isn't reporting on the full extent of research into autism."
      Rett Syndrome, an autism-like disorder, can be reversed in mice, study shows.   A Boston Globe (2/8, Goldberg) blog reported "the devastating symptoms of Rett Syndrome, a rare genetic disease related to autism, have been dramatically reversed in mice, raising a great wave of hope for families that previously had little." The researchers reported in the February 8 edition Science that they "undid the genetic defect involved in Rett Syndrome," and "brought on a stunning recovery even in mice just days from death: irregular breathing returned to normal, and mobility was restored. Brain activity, too, appeared to improve, and tremors abated."
      The AP (2/9) quotes Dr. Huda Zoghbi of the Baylor College of Medicine, who "discovered Rett's genetic culprit in 1999." Zoghbi said, "In this class of disorders, now we have a great hope that if we figure out a way to manipulate the function of the neurons...we have a chance of recovery."
      WebMD (2/9, DeNoon) explains that the studies, which come from the lab of Adrian Bird, Ph.D., a professor at Scotland's University of Edinburgh and chairman of the scientific board of the Rett Syndrome Research Foundation, found that the "mutant MECP2 gene that causes Rett syndrome does not cause permanent brain damage," and "when MECP2 gene function is restored, mice crippled by Rett-like symptoms start running around just like normal mice." Bird said the hope is that the gene restoration may make Rett syndrome reversible in humans and "[t]hat hope may also extend to some other people with autism, and to some cases of learning disability, retardation and perhaps even schizophrenia." Bird "discovered the MECP2 gene" in 1990. In its health highlights section, HealthDay (2/9) also reports on the research.