health

There has been considerable controversy in recent years because
the rate of autism in the United States appears to be rising fairly rapidly.
For many years, doctors estimated that autismaffected only four or five
children in every 10,000. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) released a report in February 2007 stating that the rate of autism among
American children had increased to one in 150 (and one in every 94 boys), many
people were quite upset. Although the CDC acknowledges that some of the increase
is due to changes in the definition and classification of autistic spectrum
disorders or ASDs, some is likely to represent a true increase in the number of affected
children. Autism is presently the second most common developmental disability in
the United States after mental retardation. The CDC estimates that there are about 560,000 persons in the United States between the ages of one and
twenty-one years who have an ASD. Boys are more likely than girls to have
autism; the male/female ratio in the United States is four to one. The reason for the gender
difference is not known. Autism is thought to be equally common in all racial and ethnic
groups in the United States.
The Autism Society of America estimates that the lifetime cost of
caring for an autistic person ranges from $3.5 to $5 million, and that
autism costs the United States an average of $90 billion each year
(including special education, housing, and transportation services as well
as direct health care costs).