Autism Spectrum Disorder knows no boundaries. ASD has no preference for any particular ethnicity. There are no cultural boundaries, religious exemptions or geographical disparities. Economics have no impact on ASD, it affects the rich and the poor.
Swine flu was/is considered a possible pandemic; a worldwide epidemic of infectious disease. What would autism be considered? Obviously, autism is not infectious but it is a worldwide epidemic disability.
The term epidemic doesn't seem to fit this problem. Epidemic sounds too much like an "Outbreak"; an epidemic of teenage pregnancies, an epidemic of car thefts in a given neighborhood. The term epidemic infers that there is an end or solution to this problem on the horizon. This hardly describes a disability that could alter the course of our civilization. Hyperbole? Not, when autism rates are now at 1 in every 88 child births and rising.
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