By Ahmed Aboulenein, Reuters
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr who is a member of Donald Trump's Cabinet. Photo: AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
The United States will identify the cause of autism by September this year, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr said on Thursday (US time), setting a deadline for an answer that has eluded scientists for decades.
Autism diagnoses in the United States have increased significantly since 2000, intensifying public concern. By 2020, the US autism rate in 8-year-olds was 1 in 36, or 2.77 percent, up from 2.27 percent in 2018 and 0.66 percent in 2000, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
"At your direction, we are going to know by September. We've launched a massive testing and research effort that's going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world," Kennedy said at a meeting of President Donald Trump's cabinet.
Trump in February ordered the creation of a "Make America Healthy Again" Commission made up of Kennedy and other secretaries to look at everything from the rates of autism and asthma in children to how much medicine is being prescribed to them for ADHD or other conditions.
"There's got to be something artificial out there that's doing this," Trump told Kennedy at the meeting. "There will be no bigger news conference than when you come up with that answer."
Scientists have been researching for decades what genetic or environmental factors might contribute to autism, but the causes of most cases remain unclear.
They say that the major drivers of the increase in US autism rates are an expanded definition that includes more types of behaviours and more widespread awareness and diagnosis.
A large new study this week added to evidence that diabetes during pregnancy is linked with an increased risk of brain and nervous system problems in children, including autism.
Kennedy has long promoted a debunked link between vaccines and autism despite scientific evidence to the contrary.
There may be multiple studies already underway on autism, a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person's brain functions.
The CDC was planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, Reuters reported last month.
The National Institutes of Health is preparing a multimillion-dollar research programme examining the causes of autism that would also look into the link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, the Washington Post reported last week.
The CDC and NIH are both overseen by Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services. A department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
-Reuters
