Autism now afflicts one in every 250 children. It's no longer considered a rare disease.

Worried about the increasing numbers, the Centers for Disease Control is forking out big research bucks to state health departments around the country - hoping to come up with some answers. Utah is one of those states.
 

Seven-year-old Cole Parker has autism. You wouldn't know it because he has one of the milder forms. He's now considered a high-functioning child. But it's taken five years of therapy to get him to this point.

"We had to teach him how to play. We've had people come over to our home and work with him one-on-one for years. And they still come and they teach him how to play and how to interact and how to appropriately make conversation," says Laurel Parker, Cole's mother.

But 11-year-old Jake Carlson is not so lucky. He has a more severe form of what is now called the Autism Spectrum Disorders.

"We would like to know what he thinks and what he feels. And like when his younger brother Zak was little, Zak used to feel so bad and he would say Jake is the rudest kid, he'll never talk to me," says Laureen Carlson, Jake's mother.

The rate of autism in kids like Jake and Cole literally quintupled between 1992 and 2000. Are doctors simply better able to diagnose the disease, or are the actual numbers indicative of an epidemic?

That's what the CDC wants to know. That's why the agency is asking health departments for help.

"What the researchers are saying is they believe it's a combination of genetic and environmental factors. But no one at this point knows the cause of autism," says Dr. Zimmerman with the Utah Department of Health.

Some researchers, including a neuroimmunologist at Utah State University, believe the immune system in these kids may react abnormally to some childhood vaccinations. The children may be genetically predisposed for autism, but something else has to trigger the disorder to actually make it happen.

Is it the vaccine or something else? How many other cases are out there? Why do some kids appear normal at birth, but autistic later on?

State health workers and the University of Utah will jointly conduct the three year, $1.2 million study setting up a registry to find out how many kids here actually have autism.

For more information on the Utah study, or if you would like to participate, contact the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities (RADD) Project at 801-584-8510 or e-mail URADD@utah.gov.