Number of autism cases on the rise: Government

NEW DELHI: The number of cases of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) reported in the central government medical institutions have seen a rise over a period of time, the government today said.

"The number of cases of ASD seen in central government medical settings ( AIIMS, New Delhi and NIMHANS, Bangalore) in the country have reportedly increased.

"At NIMHANS, the number of inpatient admission cases have increased from six in 1989 to 97 in 2011. At AIIMS, the number of new cases have gone up from 2-3 per month during the period 2005-2007 to 7-8 per month during 2008 till date," Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in a written response to a question in Lok Sabha.

He said data on autism, a neuro developmental disorder, is not maintained on a centralised basis and there are no large-scale studies on the population about its prevalence in the country.

The minister, however, said that in 2008, the National Trust (under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment) had conducted a survey in Delhi to estimate the number of persons having one or other type of mental disability.

Based on the data collected during field operation and estimation procedure, an estimated number of 36,053 suffered from mental disability. Of the 36,053, 1,470 suffered from autism, 6,600 from cerebral palsy, 17,608 from mental retardation and 10,375 from mutiple disabilities. Responding to another question, the minister said there were about 8 million people living with epilepsy in the country in 2013.

"As informed by the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam, about 50 per cent of people living with epilepsy and neurological impairments in the country do not receive medical treatment. "Treatment gap is found to be higher in rural settings as compared to urban," the minister said.