If this is true, it’s really creepy. California Autism Rate Doubles in Four Years:
Autism cases in California nearly doubled over the past four years to more than 20,000 — a phenomenon whose cause may be difficult to pinpoint because it is not related to population increases or the way the disorder is diagnosed, a state study said on Tuesday.Once a rare disorder, autism now is more prevalent than childhood cancer, diabetes and Down syndrome, the study’s author, Dr. Ron Huff, said.
The spectacular rate of increase for autism dwarfs rises of 35 percent to 49 percent for new cases of mental retardation, cerebral palsy and epilepsy in California, he said.
“We are convinced that this is for real,” Huff said. “It has to be taken seriously.” Huff’s study was a follow-up to an earlier report ordered by California lawmakers that showed a 273 percent rise in autism cases statewide between 1987 to 1998.
“All through the 1970s to the mid-1980s, we were looking at a couple of hundred (autistic) kids each year,” Huff said. “Over the next decade we were looking at thousands of new cases each year. Parents were reporting anecdotally that there were a lot more of these kids out there that anyone believed.”
Of course, if the number of functioning autistics increases, we can expect a boost to the tech sector. (Sorry.)