In a post interview chat that Robert Scoble had with with Sridhar Vembu, the CEO of Zoho, the discussion turned to Sridhar’s autistic son and how challenging it is to raise a child with the disease. The number of cases of autism seems to be increasing dramatically, and doctors have no real answer as to why it’s happening. Wikipedia goes into some detail on the statistics and some of the theories around the increase. Some people think there might be a connection to childhood vaccinations.
Sridhar also writes about his talk with Scoble on the Zoho blog.
My siblings and I were born with a genetic condition that results in random fever and body pain attacks. After each episode, I post this [dumb] question to my MD dad: why can’t some broken chromosome in our body be fixed as easily as fixing a freakin computer bug. Perhaps in future we’ll be able to.
It’s great that every once in a while someone stirs the pot and gets us talking about something off-topic yet worthwhile.
Sridhar and millions of other parents taking similar care for their kids are lifetime heroes.
Mike,
Thanks for talking about this. It means a lot to me personally, and parents in our situation.
Sridhar
There are many forms of autism, certain mild others less so. I would therefore suggest using the term “condition” as opposed to “disease”. Some geniuses like Einstein have been subjected a form of autism known as Asperger syndrome, for example.
I get a feeling, having been in close interaction with such heroic parents for more than two years now, that one can never get a complete understanding of what it is to be a parent of a person with autism, (leave alone to know what it is to have autism).
Ramamani Ravi, a good friend of mine, is the mother of 20 year old Niranjan, an autistic boy who has flowered into a self-sufficient, earning member of the family, by a transformation that was equal parts hard work, miracle, treatment, and training.
She chronicles her story here. http://blogs.jambav.com/ramamani
Rajendran.
I think autism is best covered in blogs written by parents of children with autism, the one example I’m aware of is http://www.autismisaspectrum.com/.
There is NO connection to childhood vaccination. That rumour came about because a deeply flawed study was published in the British journal the Lancet in 1998. Since then the study has been withdrawn, the Lancet has apologised, and the author is going on trial before the General Medical Council this July (it is expected he will lose his license).
Levels of autism have levelled off and the generally accepted view is that there was no increase in incidence, simply an increase in detection.
http://briandeer.com/mmr/andrew-wakefield.htm
Dan,
You might be absolutely correct in what you are saying here – the true reason for the withdrawal of the study might be its inherent flaws, I do not know. On the other hand, please do not forget how immensely big and powerful the pharmaceutical industry is. I am sure they felt threatened by the talk of claims that the vaccination “cocktails” administered to millions of young children around the world could have negative effects.
Let me tell you a litte story, one that my mother used to tell me all the time, it is about how the artificial sweetener aspartame (nutrasweet) was approved by the FDA. I think it was the early 80′s, aspartame was about to be approved by the FDA when a report or two surfaced, citing a possible connection between aspartame and cancer. The head of the FDA was not convinced about the safety of aspartame and did not want it approved. Suddenly, the studies indicating cancer risks were gone and nowhere to be found. The head of the FDA disappeared as well – he was replaced. Shortly therafter, aspartame was approved…
By the way, artificial sweetening is a multi billion dollar industry…