Hot Topic: Autism

Autism is a fascinating disorder. I became interested in the subject–specifically, the hotly debated link between vaccines and autism spectrum disorder–after reading “My Parental Heroes” by Robert Scoble. I’ve since read a number of books and countless articles on the subject.

For any number of reasons, high-profile coverage of autism-related topics is on the rise. As I write this, there are six unique links to autism-related articles on the front page of CNN.com:

• Living with autism
• Tracing autism‘s roots
  
• Unraveling the mystery – Via CNN Money, which is interesting, as no mention is made of the economic impacts of autism on family or society.
  
• When a child with autism grows up
• Autism in China: A mother’s journey
• Autism in Second Life

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the notion that modern medicine is partly to blame for the rise in cases of autism spectrum disorder, it’s refreshing to see any medical disorder receive this amount of coverage (particularly when that coverage is coming from the same news outlet that frequently interrupts coverage of war, famine and economic crisis with breaking reports that Britney Spears is leaving her home to pick up a latte).

UPDATE1: Turns out that the UN has declared 2 April World Autism Awareness Day, effective . . . 2 April 2008.  A likely explanation for the barrage of coverage.