WebMD Medical News Daniel J. DeNoon Laura J. Martin, MD March
29, 2012 -- One in every 88 U.S. children -- and one in 54 boys
-- has autism, the CDC now estimates. The latest analysis, from
a 2008 survey, shows autism is up 23% since 2006 and 78% since
2002. "This is a large number of children and families affected
by autism," study leader Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, MD, chief of
the CDC's developmental disabilities branch, tells WebMD. "With
nearly a doubling of prevalence since CDC started tracking in
1992, autism is officially becoming an epidemic in the U.S. We
are dealing with a national emergency that is in need of a
national plan," Mark Roithmayr, president of the advocacy group
Autism Speaks, said at a CDC teleconference held to announce the
findings. More autism research and better services for people
living with autism will be expensive. But the cost of autism
already is astronomical, according to preliminary findings from
an Autism Speaks-funded study by Martin Knapp, PhD, of the
London School of Ec