Front page article from the Washington Post

How widespread is autism? And is the condition, which centers on characteristics such as the inability to form personal relationships, being properly diagnosed?

New York City-based YAI-National Institute for People With Disabilities is a not-for-profit organization that not only assists families who have members with a variety of developmental disabilities, but also holds a series of conferences that highlight the latest research into specific conditions...

http://health.theledger.com/article/20070601/TOPSTORY/4544/-1/RSS2&source=RSS

COLUMBIA, MO - The increase in the number of diagnosed cases of autism in recent years has sparked concern that environmental toxins may cause this complex disorder. However, a new University of Missouri-Columbia study concludes that exposure to Rh immune globulin preserved with mercury-containing thimerosal before birth was no higher for children with autism.

"This study adds to the evidence that there is no casual association between thimerosal and childhood autism," said Judith Miles, who is the William S. Thomson Endowed Chair of Autism and professor of pediatrics and pathology in the MU School of Medicine. "We conclude that there is no indication that pregnancies resulting in children with autism were more likely to be complicated by Rh immune globulin/thimerosal exposure."

http://research.missouri.edu/news/stories/070601_thimerosal.htm

Fishkill — Temple Grandin is autistic. Her brain is missing wires. She thinks in pictures.

Yet for hundreds of people yesterday, she was the picture of hope — hope for their own children and the others locked inside autism, Asperger syndrome and related disorders.

More than 550 people crammed into the big room at the Holiday Inn in Fishkill yesterday. The Mental Health Association in Orange County and the other sponsors of the daylong conference had turned away a couple of hundred more people....

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For the seventh straight year, the Cure Autism Now 5K will bring runners, walkers and volunteers to Potomac Village on the Fourth of July. Proceeds benefit Cure Autism Now and Autism Speaks, formerly separate nonprofits that have merged to fund autism research and find a cure. Potomac’s Susan Pereles, the founder of the Can 5K, hopes to raise more than $200,000 with this year’s race, which will raise the event’s seven-year total to more than $1 million. Register now for the CAN 5K by visiting www.canrun.org.