Re: Reaching New Families - churches and synagogues

[Guest guest]

Just ask the pastors and rabbis or adult education coordinators if

they want you to come in and give an informative talk or Q and

Q.....most will jump on it as this is an issue for so many

families...and a concern for all the others. I think my church -

which caters to thousands, it is THAT big...would welcome the

opportunity to give its membership support in this area. Diane

>

> I was thinking of ways for Defeat Autism Now! et al., to reach new

families.

>

> Speech, OT centers and the such, parent groups, etc.

>

> Where else do we families with a child with autism hang out in

numbers?

>

> Please email me at autismbook1@...

>

> Thanks.

>

> Stan

>

> Oh and for whoever said viruses (and other infections) are not

associated with certain

> cases of autism has not reviewed the medical literature well.

>

> This is one of the more recent publications...

>

> J Neurosci Res. 2007 Apr;85(5):1143-8. Links

> Evidence for Mycoplasma ssp., Chlamydia pneunomiae, and human

herpes virus-6

> coinfections in the blood of patients with autistic spectrum

disorders.

>

> Nicolson GL, Gan R, Nicolson NL, Haier J.

>

> The Institute for Molecular Medicine, Huntington Beach, California

92647, USA.

> gnicolson@...

>

> We examined the blood of 48 patients from central and southern

California diagnosed with

> autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) by using forensic polymerase

chain reaction and found

> that a large subset (28/48 or 58.3%) of patients showed evidence of

Mycoplasma spp.

> infections compared with two of 45 (4.7%) age-matched control

subjects (odds ratio =

> 13.8, P < 0.001). Because ASD patients have a high prevalence of

one or more Mycoplasma

> spp. and sometimes show evidence of infections with Chlamydia

pneumoniae, we

> examined ASD patients for other infections. Also, the presence of

one or more systemic

> infections may predispose ASD patients to other infections, so we

examined the

> prevalence of C. pneumoniae (4/48 or 8.3% positive, odds ratio =

5.6, P < 0.01) and

> human herpes virus-6 (HHV-6, 14/48 or 29.2%, odds ratio = 4.5, P <

0.01) coinfections

> in ASD patients. We found that Mycoplasma-positive and -negative

ASD patients had

> similar percentages of C. pneumoniae and HHV-6 infections,

suggesting that such

> infections occur independently in ASD patients. Control subjects

also had low rates of C.

> pneumoniae (1/48 or 2.1%) and HHV-6 (4/48 or 8.3%) infections, and

there were no

> coinfections in control subjects. The results indicate that a large

subset of ASD patients

> shows evidence of bacterial and/or viral infections (odds ratio =

16.5, P < 0.001). The

> significance of these infections in ASD is discussed in terms of

appropriate treatment. ©

> 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

>

> PMID: 17265454

>