Robert F Kennedy Jr, the Health Secretary, has expressed concern over the increasing prevalence of autism, referring to it as an ‘autism epidemic’ that is spreading rapidly. Recent data indicates that the number of autism cases has now reached an all-time high.
According to the CDC, in 2022, the rate of autism diagnosis among children under the age of eight was 32.2 per 1,000, which translates to one in every 31 children. This is a significant increase from the numbers reported in 2020 (one in 36) and 2018 (one in 44).
Some of the earliest studies on autism indicate that figure was closer to one in 5,000 in the 1960s and 1970s.
The most recent report also highlights the varying rates of autism across different regions. For example, in a county in south Texas, approximately one in 100 children are diagnosed with autism, whereas in San Diego, the number is much higher at one in 19.
The researchers said the rapid rise in autism in recent decades could be partly attributed to better screening, awareness and availability of services.
In light of the findings, Kennedy says the US government is ‘assembling teams of world-class scientists to focus research on the origins of the epidemic, and we expect to begin to have answers by September.’
He added: ‘The autism epidemic is running rampant. One in 31 American children born in 2014 are disabled by autism.
‘That’s up significantly from two years earlier and nearly five times higher than when the CDC first started running autism surveys in children born in 1992.’
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has has warned that the ‘autism epidemic is running rampant,’ as new data shows that the disorder among US children has reached a record level (stock image)
Kennedy, who now runs the US Department of Health and Human Services and has long promoted a debunked link between vaccines and autism , last week set a September deadline for the US National Institutes of Health to determine the cause behind the rise in autism rates
The authors of the CDC report noted improvements in early identification of autism ‘have been apparent’ and that ‘differences in the prevalence of children identified with [autism spectrum disorder] across communities might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.’
In line with a historic trend, boys continue to be diagnosed with autism at significantly higher rates than girls.
In 2022, the CDC found that eight-year-old boys were 3.4 times more likely to be diagnosed than girls of the same age.
Overall, one in 20 eight-year-old boys were diagnosed with autism in 2022 but in places like California it was as common as one in 13.
Although the gende3r gap has started to close in recent years, the latest report suggests that the change isn’t solely due to better recognition of autism in girls.
The report also highlights shifting demographic patterns: autism diagnoses were more frequent among Asian, Black, and Hispanic children than among White children — a trend first observed in the 2020 data.
Walter Zahorodny of Rutgers University in New Jersey, who co-authored the new study said the true or actual rate of autism in the United States is ‘more likely to be closer to what this report has identified in California or Pennsylvania’.
He explained: ‘California in particular has a longstanding and excellent program for screening and early intervention.
‘The problem is there’s not a lot of research that gives us a strong indication for what is driving the rise.’
Rising rates of autism in the United States since 2000 have intensified public concern over what might be contributing to its prevalence.
Early research from the 1960s and 1970s estimated autism affected just 2 to 4 out of every 10,000 children, but the condition was poorly understood at the time.
While diagnosis rates have steadily climbed over the years, they were already much higher by 2000, when the CDC reported a prevalence of 1 in 150 children.
Kennedy, who now runs the US Department of Health and Human Services and has long promoted a debunked link between vaccines and autism, last week set a September deadline for the US National Institutes of Health to determine the cause behind the rise in autism rates.
He said today: ‘President Trump has tasked me with identifying the root causes of the childhood chronic disease epidemic – including autism.
‘The risks and costs of this crisis are a thousand times more threatening to our country then COVID-19.
‘Autism is preventable and it is unforgivable that we have not yet identified the underlying causes. We should have had these answers 20 years ago.’
The CDC report looked at autism rates in 16 monitoring sites across the US to predict the overall figure for the rest of the nation.
The authors note these sites do not precisely reflect the characteristics of the entire country, and the CDC study was not designed to identify possible causes of any increase in prevalence.
Considering the wide variations in autism symptoms among individuals, a combination of genetic and environmental factors that together affect early brain development are likely to be the cause, said Dr Lang Chen of Santa Clara University in California, who studies the brain networks involved in learning disabilities and autism but was not involved in the CDC study.
‘However, it is critical to know that there is no scientific evidence supporting the link between vaccines and autism,’ he said.
Zahorodny noted that vaccination rates have been falling while autism diagnoses have risen.
As in 2020, ASD prevalence among eight-year-olds was higher among Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, and Hispanic children than among white children, the CDC data showed.
Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, and Hispanic children with ASD were more likely than white or multiracial children with ASD to also have an intellectual disability.
The data also showed that ASD is more common among boys than girls.
The disorder is increasingly being identified at younger ages, with higher rates of diagnosis by age four among children born in 2018 compared with those born four years earlier.
Heightened awareness and the inclusion of a wider range of behaviors to describe the condition have contributed to the increase but do not explain all of it, experts say.
