A stunning increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism has schools straining to provide services and health officials urgently seeking answers. The increases are fueling a grass-roots movement of parents determined to expose what they believe is a connection between autism and vaccines. Autism, a developmental disability that usually appears before a child's third birthday, profoundly affects communication and social skills, impairing the child's ability to play, speak and relate to the world. In California, state senators are calling for research to find out why there was a 273-percent jump in children with autism in the past decade. And Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who held a hearing on vaccine safety this month, is leading an effort in Congress to find answers.
Some experts doubt that.
Lou Danielson of the Education Department's office of special education programs says his office's statistics are suspect because until 1991, there was no category for reporting autism. We don't know why. I've talked to other educators, and they have a similar upswing. I think the increase is real. People have cited other possible explanations, such as pesticides and pollutants, she said.