Autism: Somali Susceptibility
"According to a 2001 state health department study, there are an estimated 15,000 to 40,000 Somalis living in Minnesota, the biggest Somali population outside of East Africa. [In Minneapolis schools, Somalis account for about 6% of enrolment, but] about a quarter of all autism children who attend autism classrooms for students functioning too low to be mainstreamed in regular schoolrooms are Somali. ... 'It is the more severe forms of autism that we're seeing in our Somali babies that are born here,' said Anne Harrington, early childhood special education co-ordinator for the Minneapolis district and a specialist on the topic. 'If they're having more children, many of the siblings also have autism. We have a number of [Somali] families who have two children on the autism spectrum and sometimes more.' ... She said she knows of an apartment building with Somali residents in which almost every family has at least one autistic child. ... Harrington suggested that differences in the genetic make-up of Africans put them more at risk for developing autism than other immigrant groups, and noted that refugee women and children must undergo numerous immunizations. (According to school data, the percentage of Hmong children and Latino children in Minneapolis public schools with autism is not as high as Somali children with autism.) ... But numerous studies have failed to prove any connection with symptoms of autism in children and vaccines. ...
A Swedish newspaper published an article last week about that country's Somali population and its high prevalence of autism. The story described an autism study that focused on Somalis. Doctors hypothesized that the high rates of autism in Somali children born in Sweden is due to the lower levels of sunlight and vitamin D immigrants get in Sweden compared with Somalia, a country near the equator. Dark skin that's covered up and a diet that doesn't include fatty fish limits absorption of vitamin D as well, according to the doctors. ... And the journal Science published a study last week that linked shared ancestry to autism. (The study was also described in the Times of London.) A Harvard team funded by the National Institute of Mental Health studied Middle Eastern families in which cousins had married each other. In five of those cases, children showed genetic defects linked to autism. Many Muslim Somalis marry their first, second or third cousins, putting them a category suspected to be more at risk." (Minneapolis Post, July 24, 2008)
Other working hypotheses include the practice of polygamy and a link to damaged sperm among men who father children at older ages. Ethiopians in Israel also experience high rates of autism -- and Ethiopians share genetic ties with Somalis. Anecdotally, there are no records of high autism rates in Somalia -- but why should there be? Given Somalia's perpetual state of chaos, the country gave up on records keeping years ago
This article appears in the May, 2009 issue of the CANADIAN IMMIGRATION HOTLINE. Published monthly, the CANADIAN IMMIGRATION HOTLINE is available by subscription for $30 per year. You can subscribe by sending a cheque or VISA number and expiry date to CANADIAN IMMIGRATION HOTLINE, P.O. Box 332, Rexdale, ON., M9W 5L3.]
