There is a review of a chapter from
Understanding Autism: From Basic Neuroscience to Treatment (CRC Press, 2006) written by Michael Ganz, Assistant Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at Harvard School of Public Health. I have an order for this book sitting on my desk, so I can't comment on the chapter itself. However, there are some interesting factoids on the flip side, including some North Carolina facts and figures.
Crossposted on Our Spectrum
From the review, we find out how much it takes to raise a child with autism:
It can cost about $3.2 million to take care of an autistic person over his or her lifetime. Caring for all people with autism over their lifetimes costs an estimated $35 billion per year.
This number does not include any alternative treatments or comorbid conditions such as food allergies. I'm talking real food allergies in addition to GFCF.
Ganz's analysis of the costs includes direct and indirect medical costs associated with the disorder. But he believes the $35 billion annual societal cost for caring for and treating people with autism likely underestimates the true costs because there are a number of other services that are used to support individuals with autism, such as alternative therapies and other family out-of-pocket expenses, that are difficult to measure. In addition, Ganz believes that the level of cost could be higher if there were more useful and widespread treatment options available.
Another interesting point is the relationship of funding per year to number of cases.
"Given that the federal autism research budget has been historically less than $100 million per year and given that research budgets for other conditions with similar numbers of affected individuals are sometimes orders of magnitude higher, I hope that my research can help focus more attention on directing more resources toward finding prevention and treatment options for autism," Ganz said. (For comparison purposes, he notes estimated annual costs of other conditions, including Alzheimer's disease ($91 billion); mental retardation ($51 billion); anxiety ($47 billion); and schizophrenia ($33 billion).)
The $100 Million/year in research, how does that relate to other diseases?
Anthrax gets $185 million a year? How many deaths from anthrax last year? Do you know something interesting, I can't find the data on anthrax deaths anywhere. Nowhere on the CDC site does it actually tell you how many people die from anthrax. Wanna know why? Because only 5 people die from anthrax. Yet, we are spending $185 million a year.
Anthrax 1:25,000,000 versus ASD 1:166. Autism funding = $101 Million, Anthrax funding = $185 Million.
What about some other diseases? How does there prevalence relate to their funding.
The CDC believes up to 950,000 people in the United States are infected with HIV and up to 280,000 of them don't know it, Valdiserri said. The rate of HIV diagnoses in the United States increased slightly -- by 1 percent -- between 2000 and 2003, from 19.5 people per 100,000 population to 19.7 per 100,000 in the 32 states surveyed by the CDC. Advocacy groups blame a lack of federal money for part of the failure to make a dent in the HIV rate. "The reality is, to cut the number of infections, we need to do more -- you can't always do more with less. We desperately need more resources," Anderson said.
In order to cut the number of infections, they need more funds. HIV/AIDS is 1:5000, Autism is 1:166. HIV/AIDS gets nearly $3 Billion a year, Autism gets $0.10 Billion.
Researchers have discovered that the risk of MS is greater with increasing distance from the equator. Even in the United States, MS is more common in northern states than it is in southern states. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the rate of MS in the United States below the 37th parallel is 57 to 78 cases per 100,000 people. Above the 37th parallel, the rate of MS is 110 to 140 cases per 100,000 people -- approximately twice the rate as below the 37th parallel.
Autism is 1:166, MS is ~1:1000. MS funding is 108 Million in 2007, Autism is 101.
Now am I saying these disease don't deserve lots of funding to try and help those sufferers and their families? No, what I'm saying is this:
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND TELL THEM TO INCREASE AUTISM FUNDING