About one in 150 American children has autism, U.S. health officials said Thursday, calling the troubling disorder an urgent public health concern that is more common than they had thought. The new numbers are based on the largest, most convincing study done so far in the United States, and trump previous estimates that placed the prevalence at 1 in 166. The difference means roughly 50,000 more children and young adults may have autism and related disorders than was previously thought – a total nationwide of more than half a million people. Advocates said the study provides a sad new understanding of autism’s burden on society, and should fuel efforts to get the government to spend hundreds of millions of additional dollars for autism research and services. ‘This data today show we’re going to need more early intervention services and more therapists, and we’re going to need federal and state legislators to stand up for these families,’ said Alison Singer, spokeswoman for Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest organization advocating services for autistic children. The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was based on 2002 data from 14 states. It calculated an average […]