Recently Released Data from the National Survey of Children's Health Reports That Autism Now Affects 1% of Children and is More Common Than Children's Cancer, Diabetes, and AIDS...( The Autism Research Inst...),Health

The Autism Research Institute mobilizes international experts in the effort to hold back this devastating disorder, and to discover effective treatments and prevention strategies.

ATLANTA, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Children's Health Survey recently released results from a 2007 telephone survey of over 80,000 households in the US, in which parents were asked if their child (ages 2-17) was known to "currently have autism, Asperger's Disorder, pervasive development disorder, or other autism spectrum disorder." The results of the survey showed that 1% of children (one in 100) now have the disorder. (Previous estimates from the CDC reported a prevalence rate of only one in 150.) To read the report online, visit: http://nschdata.org/Dataquery/SurveyAreas.aspx?yid=2

It also reported that 0.6 % of households surveyed report that their child "had the condition at some point in the past, but not currently." This finding supports numerous reports from the Autism Research Institute that recovery from autism is possible in some children. According to Dr. Steve M. Edelson, Executive Director of the Autism Research Institute (ARI), new research challenges the long-held view that autism is an incurable genetic disorder: "What we are discovering is that those with autism oftentimes have underlying medical disorders that impair neurological, gastrointestinal, metabolic, and immune systems, that when these problems are accurately diagnosed and treated, the symptoms of autism often improve -- sometimes to the point that the child is no longer classified as autistic."

In response to the rising prevalence of this disorder, ARI is sponsoring a think tank August 8-9th in Chicago, IL, bringing together expert
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