Login
NHS ‘Overwhelmed’ by Soaring Autism as Number of Patients Jump by a Quarter – More Than 200,000 Britons Seeking Specialist Help
More than 200,000 people are now waiting for an autism assessment in England, with some having been on the list for years, alarming National Health Service (NHS) data show. Autism charities said it was unacceptable that the equivalent of the population of Luton or Portsmouth was now waiting to been seen by a specialist.
The latest NHS England figures, which cover the period ending March this year, show the number of patients waiting at least three months for an initial specialist appointment has jumped by more than a quarter from the same time last year. The figure has tripled since 2021, according to the data published today.
Experts have warned that the continued growth of the autism assessment waiting list has overwhelmed NHS capacity to provide patients much needed support. Data show the number of children waiting for an assessment accounted for a large part of the increase, with over half having to wait over two years.
In total, nearly 124,000 under 18s were on the waiting list for over three months, an increase of almost 30,000 compared to last year. While NHS guidelines state that patients should only have to wait 13 weeks for an autism assessment, the vast majority of patients, about nine in 10, wait far longer.
Record Number of Oregon Kindergartners Exempt From School-Required Vaccinations
Nearly 10% of Oregon kindergartners have a non-medical exemption to some or all of the vaccines that are required to attend school. That’s according to numbers released Thursday by the Oregon Health Authority. The number of parents requesting non-medical exemptions to vaccines has been steadily increasing in Oregon. The OHA said those numbers, the highest exemption rate the state’s ever recorded, increase the chance for an outbreak of highly contagious, previously eradicated diseases like measles.
About 8% of Lane County kindergarteners had at least one non-medical vaccine exemption, putting the county just below the state average. In Benton and Lincoln Counties, 7% kindergartners have exemptions. Meanwhile, roughly 11% of Linn, Douglas and Deschutes kindergartners are exempt.
Statewide, the county with the lowest non-medical exemption rate for kindergartners was Jefferson, at 5.1%. Its neighbor to the east, Wheeler County, had the state’s highest vaccine exemption rate at 38.5%. In a news release, Dr. Dean Sidelinger, health officer and state epidemiologist at Oregon Public Health, said the state is trying to educate families about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines.
Shaping Baby’s Gut Health From Day One
Loma Linda University Health reported:
The earliest nourishment a newborn receives shapes the foundation of lifelong health, not just for nutrition, but for immunity, metabolism and disease resistance. The gut microbiome, the diverse community of bacteria that inhabit the digestive tract, begins forming at birth and is influenced by a baby’s first food: breast milk.
A healthy gut microbiome along with breastfeeding protects the gut lining, supports the baby’s immune system, and provides long-term benefits to both child and mother. “Babies receive the most nutrition from milk the first year of life and breastmilk is the optimal milk” said Elaine Hart, M.D., FACOG, fellow Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine an obstetrician/gynecologist at Loma Linda University Health.
Vaginal birth and skin-to-skin contact can help seed the gut with beneficial bacteria, but perhaps the most significant contributor is breast milk. Breast milk can decrease the types and virulence of dangerous bacteria in the gut. Unlike formula, which can alter gut permeability and introduce proinflammatory molecules and a more divers bacterial load, breast milk supports the development of a more favorable gut microbiota.
Breast milk is rich in antibodies, white blood cells, enzymes, and oligosaccharides, complex sugars that serve as prebiotics to feed healthy gut bacteria. Early milk, called colostrum, is particularly potent in these immune-boosting compounds. “It’s like giving the baby their first vaccine,” said Hart. “There’s a reason nature designed it that way.”
Early Air Pollution Exposure Affects Health in Adolescence, Study Finds
Young children who are exposed to high levels of air pollution are more likely to experience poor health outcomes in later adolescence, according to new research.
The study, conducted by academics at University College London, looked at data from 9,000 young people taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study born between 2000 and 2002 across the U.K., measuring their exposure to various types of air pollutants including PM2.5, PM10 and NO2.
The results found that adolescents who lived in polluted areas during early childhood, aged two to four, had a risk up to a third higher of reporting worse health at age 17.
The study also found that children from ethnic minority backgrounds and deprived neighbourhoods tended to be exposed to higher levels of air pollution, resulting in them being more likely to experience poorer health and chronic conditions.
Long COVID Is Fueling a Mental Health Crisis in Children
A new study from Kennedy Krieger Institute is calling attention to an emerging mental health crisis among children with long COVID. Researchers found that nearly 40% of pediatric patients with long COVID reported feeling significant symptoms of anxiety or depression.
The study included 139 patients evaluated at Kennedy Krieger’s Pediatric Post-COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic. Clinicians used mental health screening surveys to assess symptoms reported by the patients. The screenings also included measures of key aspects of quality of life including: physical functioning, emotional functioning, social functioning, and school functioning.
More than 1 in 3 children reported that they were experiencing elevated symptoms of anxiety or depression (i.e. worry, sleep problems, and mood irritability). Dr. Laura Malone, director of the clinic and co-investigator in this research, says half of these children had no prior mental health concerns or diagnosis.
“Long COVID is a complex condition,” said Malone. “We’re seeing children and teens who were doing well before their COVID infection now struggling to attend school, socialize, or even enjoy basic activities.”
Air Quality Affects Early Childhood Development and Health
Center on the Developing Child reported:
The influences in a child’s developmental environment, both positive and negative, interact to shape the development of their brain, the integrated systems in their body — including the immune, metabolic, and cardiovascular systems — and even how their genes are expressed.
Clean air is an essential part of a healthy developmental environment, and ensuring that children and their caregivers have clean air to breathe in all the spaces where they spend time — both indoors and out — is key to supporting long-term health and well-being.
Actionable solutions to improve air quality range from better policies and pollutant-free products to healthier housing, ventilation, and building materials. Yet, these solutions have not been widely adopted, and air pollution continues to disproportionately affect families with fewer resources and families of color due to systemic inequalities in housing and zoning.
By addressing these disparities, we can support those most impacted and ensure all children have cleaner air to breathe. This working paper from the Early Childhood Scientific Council on Equity and the Environment explores how air quality — with a focus on indoor air, given that we typically spend more than 90% of our time inside — affects children’s health and well-being.
Cancer Fears Have Some KC-Area Parents Requesting School Transfers, Urging More Testing
The Kansas City Star reported:
For nearly three years, Cory Brown has worried that the Liberty school her two kids attend is making people sick. She’s written the superintendent many times, the first email back in the fall of 2022 after multiple teachers were diagnosed with breast cancer.
She questioned the presence of an active 120 foot tall cell tower, located 130 feet from Warren Hills Elementary, and has spoken to staff and other parents about their concerns. And now, after her request to transfer her two children to another school in the district was denied, Brown and her husband are planning to send their children to private school.
When the two students leave Warren Hills elementary later this month for summer, they won’t be back. “It’s awful to have to choose between a school that you love and uprooting your kids from everything they’ve known,” Brown told The Star. “(But) obviously their health comes first.”
