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A Fatal Week for Children With Autism as Deaths Spike Nationwide
At least five autistic children died after wandering from safe environments in the past week, and two autistic individuals were shot, one fatally, the National Autism Association reported on Monday.
Victor Perez, a 17-year-old with autism and cerebral palsy, died Saturday at Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello after being removed from life support. Doctors had pronounced Perez clinically brain dead on Friday, a week after officers fired nearly 20 times at the nonverbal teen on April 5. Perez was ultimately shot by police nine times.
In a separate incident, a young autistic man was shot in the back by two assailants who attacked him after he became lost. Another vulnerable young man with autism remains missing in Washington state.
“Nearly every fatality this past week was entirely preventable,” the association said in a statement. “The majority of deaths occurred from either lack of awareness of autism, dangerous misconceptions, or lack of support and safeguards for them or their families.”
Arizona Public Schools Must Ban Certain Ultra-Processed Foods, New Law Says
The Arizona Republic reported:
In a win for supporters of controversial Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a bill to ban certain ultra-processed foods in Arizona public schools is now law.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed House Bill 2164 — which bans a list of 11 different additives, among them Red Dye No. 40, titanium dioxide, potassium bromate and various other food dyes — on April 14.
The new law bans food containing certain additives from being sold or served in Arizona schools, including by third-party vendors, though it doesn’t prevent parents from sending such food to school with their children. Among foods that contain one or more of the additives the law now bans are Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts, Froot Loops cereal and nacho cheese Doritos chips.
Texas Measles Cases Increase 4% as Spread Appears to Be Slowing
Texas reported 20 new confirmed measles cases on Tuesday, a 4% increase from Friday’s data as the virus’ spread appears to be slowing in the hardest-hit U.S. state.
The state now has 561 total cases, with 58 people hospitalized since the outbreak began, two more since the last update April 11. Two unvaccinated children have died in Texas since the outbreak began this year.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tallied 712 confirmed cases in 24 states so far. The vast majority of cases have been in people who were unvaccinated. After two doses, the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is 97% effective against the highly contagious disease.
A group of scientific experts are meeting in Atlanta this week to discuss vaccine recommendations. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to discuss the measles outbreak on Tuesday afternoon.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has previously questioned the safety of the MMR vaccine, including linking the vaccine to autism — a debunked theory. The inconsistency in Kennedy’s vaccine messaging has worried health officials.
Father’s Mental Health Can Impact Children for Years
Five-year-olds exposed to paternal depression are more likely to have behavioral issues in grade school, Rutgers Health researchers find. In popular culture, dads are stoic, sensitive and strong. So powerful is the mystique of the happy dad that celebrities, joke books — even hard seltzers — carry the label.
Real life is different. Fathers get down, sometimes debilitatingly. And as new research from Rutgers Health reveals, when paternal depression goes undiagnosed or unaddressed, the negative social and behavioral effects on children can persist for years.
In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Kristine Schmitz, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS), together with other researchers from RWJMS and from Princeton and Rider universities, reports that children exposed to paternal depression when entering kindergarten are far more likely to have teacher-reported behavioral difficulties and poor social skills at age nine.
New Study May Help Detect Early Signs of Autism in the First Year of Life
The University of Missouri reported:
Autism is typically diagnosed in children ages three to five years old, but researchers at the University of Missouri’s Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment are exploring whether signs of autism could be detected as early as the first year of life.
In the first report from their longitudinal study, researchers Erin Andres and Stephen Sheinkopf found that behavior at nine months old can indicate the likelihood that a one year old will be at risk for autism.
As part of the study, parents of 9-month-old infants answered questions from the Survey of Well-Being of Young Children about their infants’ temperaments and adaptability. The survey asked about behaviors such as frequent crying, irritability, difficulty calming down and trouble adapting to new environments.
At 12 months, they completed an autism screening questionnaire that assessed communication skills, sensory sensitivities and restrictive or repetitive behaviors. The screening gauged whether infants responded to their names or were overwhelmed by loud noises such as vacuum cleaners. “What we found was the infants at 9 months who were reported to be fussier had a harder time adapting, more difficulty sleeping and more delays in achieving developmental milestones were more likely to show signs of early autism by 12 months,” Sheinkopf, the study’s principal investigator and a professor of pediatrics, said.
Is Arizona’s Lack of Measles Cases a Fluke, Given Its Low Vaccination Rate?
Measles — declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2002 thanks to widespread vaccination — has hit 22 states this year. Arizona hasn’t reported a single case during the current outbreak, despite its relatively low vaccination rate. The hot dry climate could be a factor, as could demographics and population density.
But Arizona is no safe haven from the measles.
The state recorded six cases last year, and public health experts say it’s probably a matter of time before Arizona joins this year’s list. Nearly everyone who has contracted measles this year was unvaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state public health authorities. Roughly 12% of Arizona children haven’t had the vaccine by the time they start school.
“Community immunity is highly effective and makes everyone’s protection stronger, especially for those who are immunocompromised,” said Dr. Nick Staab, chief medical officer and epidemiologist at the Maricopa County Department of Public Health.
Autism, Stimming and Touch: Exploring Differences in Brain Processing of Active vs. Passive Touch
Tapping a pen, shaking a leg, twirling hair — we have all been in a classroom, meeting, or a public place where we find ourselves or someone else engaging in repetitive behavior — a type of self-stimulatory movement also known as stimming.
For people with autism, stimming can include movements like flicking fingers or rocking back and forth. These actions are believed to be used to deal with overwhelming sensory environments, regulate emotions, or express joy, but stimming is not well understood. And while the behaviors are mostly harmless and, in some instances, beneficial, stimming can also escalate and cause serious injuries. However, it is a difficult behavior to study, especially when the behaviors involve self-harm.
“The more we learn about how benign active tactile sensations like stimming are processed, the closer we will be to understanding self-injurious behavior,” said Emily Isenstein, Ph.D., Medical Scientist Training Program trainee at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and first author of the study in NeuroImage that provides new clues into how people with autism process touch. “By better understanding how the brain processes different types of touch, we hope to someday work toward more healthy outlets of expression to avoid self-injury.”
