Tina Cruz
LA Special Needs Kids Examiner
September 26, 12:23 PM
Recently the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reportedly revised the rates of autism for the United States
and the numbers are alarming. In 2007, the reported numbers were 1 in 150. Today, those numbers have skyrocketed to 1 in 100, and some say the numbers are closer to 1 in 89. According to David Kirby, the data is due to be released any day now.
Corroboration of this number has been tough to find, with much circular logic, pointing to blog posts who point back to his blog. According to Lee Grossman, CEO for Autism Society of America, and quoted by Kirby, that number is correct.
When I tried to verify the numbers, the CDC still lists the 2007 statistics of 1 in 150 in their official report, the new report has not been released) but the numbers on the webpage have been modified to reflect “1 in 100 to 1 in 300 with an average of 1 in 150” for prevalence in autism. The last modification that was made to the page was September 25, 2009. When I checked the internet archives, for earlier cached versions of the page, it was odd that the data page was missing from the archive. But Google cache revealed the subtle refinement of the details. As of yesterday morning, the website was changed to reflect the new numbers. It is interesting that the modification occurred yesterday, Friday, the day traditionally known for burying news that the media doesn’t publicize. I don’t want to say there is a conspiracy, but why hide the data? Is the CDC trying to bury these numbers?  Why isn’t the media shouting this from the rooftops? Exactly how common does autism have to get in order to get the attention, research and funding for programs it needs?
According to the numbers David Kirby cites from a 2007 telephone interview of almost 82,000 children conducted by National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), which is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services, your odds of being told you have a child with autism is a staggering 1 in 63. If that child is a boy, odds skyrocket to 1 in 38. That’s 2.6% of all male children in the United States. Is this possible?