LAHORE: Eighth World Autism Awareness Day is being observed on Saturday (today) but medical experts say there is almost no awareness about this disease in many other parts of the world, including Pakistan.

Even doctors are also not aware of the disease while treatment and other facilities about the persons suffering from it are also rare, they say.

Rukhsana Shah, who has recently established the Autism Spectrum Disorders Resource Centre (ASDRC) in the provincial capital, said the persons with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were more misdiagnosed, misunderstood and abused than any other group in the country.

In a press release issued on Friday, she said according to an estimate, one in every 50 children in Pakistan could be autistic which was much higher than other parts of the world. Unfortunately, autism was not recognised either as a specific disorder or an atypical neurological trajectory and autistic individuals were categorised as ‘mentally retarded’ as per the last census of 1998, she lamented, adding that developmental disorders were not even mentioned in the Mental Health Ordinance 2001.

ASDRC Clinical Psychologist Asma Ahmed said although autism could be cured by training, love and care. She said the ASDRC was providing free training and support to the children suffering from autism and their parents. She elaborated that the symptoms of the disease included difficulty in mixing with other children, insistence on sameness, resistance to changes in routine, inappropriate laughing and giggling, no fear of dangers, little or no eye contact, sustained odd play, apparent insensitivity to pain, echolalia (repeating words or phrases in place of normal language), remaining alone, spinning objects, non-responsive to verbal cues and acting as deaf

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2016