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09JUN05
By Dan Olmsted
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Washington, DC, Jun. 8 (UPI)
The autism rate for U.S. children is 1 in 166, according to the federal
government. The autism rate for the Amish around Middlefield, Ohio, is 1 in
15,000, according to Dr. Heng Wang.
He means that literally: Of 15,000 Amish who live near Middlefield, Wang is
aware of just one who has autism. If that figure is anywhere near correct, the
autism rate in that community is astonishingly low.
Wang is the medical director, and a physician and researcher, at the DDC Clinic
for Special Needs Children, created three years ago to treat the Amish in
northeastern Ohio.
"I take care of all the children with special needs," he said, putting him in a
unique position to observe autism. The one case Wang has identified is a
12-year-old boy.
Like stitchwork in an Amish quilt, Wang's comments extend a pattern first
identified by United Press International in the Pennsylvania Dutch country
around Lancaster, Pa.
-- A Lancaster doctor who has treated thousands of Amish for nearly a
quarter-century said he had never seen any autism. "We're right in the heart of
Amish country and seeing none -- and that's just the way it is," that doctor
said last month.
-- An Amish-Mennonite mother with an adopted autistic child said she was aware
of only two other children with the disorder. "It is so much more rare among our
people," she said.
-- UPI also found scant evidence of autism among the Amish in Indiana and
Kentucky, two other states with sizable Amish settlements.
Ohio, with the nation's largest Amish population, appears no different. Asked if
he thinks the autism rate among the Amish is low, Wang said: "I would agree with
that. In this country, the Amish have less autism. Why? That's a very
interesting topic. I think people need to look into it to do more research. This
is something we could learn from."
Wang said the Amish boy's autism is of "unknown etiology," meaning the cause is
undetermined. In response to a question, he checked the medical chart and said
the boy had received routine childhood immunizations.
The Amish have a religious exemption from immunizations, and traditionally only
a minority has allowed children to receive the shots. That number has been
increasing, however, and Wang said most Amish parents in the area he serves do
vaccinate their children, although that varies greatly by community.
The question arose because in Pennsylvania the Amish-Mennonite mother described
what she said was a vaccine link to the cases. She suspects that her adopted
daughter, who received immunizations both in China and again after arriving in
the Unites States, became autistic because of the shots. She said a second child
with autism in the community had "a clear vaccine reaction" and lapsed into
autism.
Some parents and a minority of medical professionals think a mercury-based
preservative in vaccines -- or in some cases the vaccines themselves --
triggered a huge increase in autism cases in the 1990s, leading to the 1-in-166
rate cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1999
manufacturers began phasing out that preservative, called thimerosal, at the
CDC's request.
Most mainstream medical experts and federal health authorities say a link
between thimerosal and autism has been discredited, although the director of the
CDC told Congress she is keeping an open mind about the possibility.
Wang said he did not want to offer an opinion about whether the Ohio boy's
vaccinations might be linked to his autism.
(A Virginia doctor told UPI he is treating six other Amish children with autism,
none of them vaccinated. In four of the six cases he suspects their autism was
triggered by mercury toxicity due to environmental pollution.)
Middlefield's DDC Clinic -- the initials stand for Das Deutsch Center -- opened
in 2002 as a collaboration between the Amish and non-Amish communities to aid
children with rare genetic and metabolic disorders.
The Amish are prone to genetic disorders because of their isolated gene pool.
The clinic has identified 37 genetic diseases among its patients and formed
partnerships with 10 research groups and several medical centers.
"The Clinic evolved from the desire of Northeast Ohio Amish families to find
answers for their children with genetic disorders," the clinic's Web site
explains. "These disorders require attention and research beyond that provided
by conventional medicine."
The Amish hope "any research obtained from their efforts has the potential to
benefit special needs children throughout the world. This is their gift to us."
That gift, it now appears, could also hold clues to autism.
--
This
series on the roots and rise of autism aims to be interactive with readers and
will take note of comments, criticism and suggestions. E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
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