Autism has no cure, but it can be managed

Experts working with children with special needs speak on the need for parents to key into early detection and management of autism, Bukola Adebayo writes

Instead of celebrating her son’s fifth birthday with the pomp and pageantry that the occasion deserved, Shade Onanuga, a top banker, opted for low key celebration with Jide (the celebrant), his two elder sisters and her husband.

Their neighbours’ children and other kids from their local church in Ikoyi were not invited. Onanuga thought the celebrations would only make people aware of the fact that her son is autistic.

In spite of counselling and education from doctors and family that with the right medical, physical and emotional support, Jide would live to be a healthy and productive adult, Onanuga keeps her son from interacting with anybody outside their immediate family.

She still holds the belief that Jide is ‘afflicted’ with autism, and with the right prayers and deliverance in a ‘powerful’ church, he would receive his healing.

Though she was told that her son is autistic at the age of three, two years after the diagnosis, Jide is yet to get any professional help.

Experts say the actions and inactions of  parents like Onanuga is a major reason why most autistic children in Nigeria grow up to be dependent adults who have to be assisted all through their lives.

They say that due to the fear of discrimination, stigma, socio-cultural and religious beliefs, parents hide their children living with this disorder, thereby denying them access to treatment and education.

According to consultant neurosurgeon, Dr. Biodun Ogungbo, autism is a medical disorder, not a spiritual attack or punishment; and it should be managed by health professionals, rather than spiritual healers.

He describes autism as a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout a person’s life.

Ogungbo states that people with autism spectrum disorders may have problems with social and communication skills, such that they react unusually to sensations and their environment.

“Autism is a developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them. People with autism experience over- or under-sensitivity to sounds, touch, tastes, smells, light or colours. They see the world differently and experience or express happiness, sadness, anger and other sensitivities differently.”

Autism is no longer a rare disorder, according to the United States-based Centre for Disease Control. It says about one in 68 children are living with this disorder.

But, as many people are likley to ask: If autism is a medical disorder and not a spiritual attack or affliction, what causes it?

Experts say the main cause of autism is largely unknown, hence, a cure has not been found.

However, there is new evidence that environmental factors such as air pollution could predispose pregnant mothers to having babies with autism.

Indeed, a research released this week in the United States of America notes that autism starts with disrupted genes and is therefore a failure of early formation.

And, according to a researcher with the University of California, San Diego’s Autism Centre of Excellence, Prof. Eric Courchesne, “This research suggests that the changes that cause autism happen in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.”

Though no research has been conducted in Nigeria, another study by scientists at the University of Southern California in the United States, led by Dr. Heather Volk, has revealed that children living in areas with high levels of traffic-related pollution are sitting on a time bomb.

The research shows that children and pregnant women living in these areas are three times more likely to have autism than those living in rural areas with low levels of pollutants.

According to them, autistic children living in these areas are more likely to have been exposed to higher levels of traffic-related pollutants during their mother’s pregnancy and three times as likely to have inhaled dangerous pollutants in their first year of life.

The findings did not change in variations to ethnicity, parental education, and maternal smoking during pregnancy.

Also corroborating this view, experts who spoke at an Autism Awareness programme in Lagos on Tuesday state that women living in areas with the highest levels of diesel or mercury pollution such as industrialised areas are twice as likely to have a child with autism, compared with those living in areas with lowest levels of pollutants.

Consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Dr. Maymunah Kadiri, explains that though the main cause of autism is unknown, the condition could be linked to a complex interaction between the genetic composition of children and some environmental factors.

Kadiri  states, “ In a  2012 study, women who were exposed to other types of air pollution, such as lead, manganese and methylene chloride,  had 50 per cent  chance of having babies living with autism.

“This is a pointer to the fact that mothers must reduce their exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy and also protect their children from inhaling these dangerous pollutants. We may not know the cause, but we can do what we can to prevent it.”

The good news is that autism can also be detected early in children as young as a year old. Ogungbo calls on government at all levels to incorporate screening for autism and other developmental disorders for children.