NEW YORK (TRP) – The Autism epidemic in the United States continues to gain momentum as new data released Thursday shows that 1 in 88 American children has some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
According to the report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new estimates mark a staggering 78% increase in Autism cases compared to a decade ago.
To get a better idea of the severity of this increase, CDC data in 2000 and 2002 estimated that 1 in 150 children had some form of autism. In 2004, the rate rose to 1 in 125. Two years later, the number was 1 in 110, and now it has shot up to 1 in 88. To say this is not an epidemic that needs more attention, is simple-minded.
In response to the new figures, advocacy groups across the country said immediate action and attention needs to be taken on a federal level.
Autism Speaks, a prominent advocacy and research funding organization, said the CDC report prompts an urgent response.
“Clearly we have a national emergency and clearly, we need a national plan,” Mark Roithmayr, the president of Autism Speaks, said in a statement Thursday.
The plan, he says, should include earlier diagnosis, better insurance coverage for early interventions and federal funding for more research.
Even with early diagnosis, many families continue to struggle to obtain vital services for children, especially as they move into adulthood.
“There’s got to be a way for parents to know without having to ask, without having to fight for it,” New Jersey mom Darlene Heins told TRP. “It needs to be offered to them because when your child first gets diagnosed you’re lost.”
For years Heins struggled to get coverage for a variety of services for her now-16-year-old son Christopher, who was diagnosis with Autism at 18 months.
Christopher is just one of many in a growing population who is in dire need of special services — services that some families don’t even know exist. In wake of the new data, the reality is: the need for these resources will ultimately surpass what’s available to them.
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the RAMOS project 
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