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CDC
launches new Center
on Birth Defects and Disabilities
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
has established a new center which will focus on growing
public health concerns of birth defects and disabilities.
Created by the Children's Health Act of 2000, CDC's
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
will work to improve the health of children and adults by
preventing birth defects and developmental disabilities,
promoting optimal child development, as well as ensuring
health and wellness among children and adults living with
disabilities. The new Center's key public
health roles include working with state health departments,
academic institutions, and other public health partners
to accomplish the following:
* Monitor birth defects, developmental disabilities, and
the health and wellness of individuals living with a
disability.
* Support research to identify causes or risk factors and
develop strategies for prevention of birth defects,
developmental disabilities, and for the secondary
conditions associated with disability. Current programs
include Centers for Birth Defects Research and Prevention,
and Centers of Excellence for Autism Epidemiology,
Disability, and Health Research Grants .
* Promote programs to prevent birth defects, develop-
mental disabilities, and promote wellness among people
with disability such as: a national educational campaign
to promote the use of the vitamin folic acid to prevent
spina bifida; prevention programs for fetal alcohol syn-
drome; and state programs to track newborns with hear- ing
loss.
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NIH
funds $3.9 million
in new Grants
for Autism Research
The
National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded grants
totaling $3.9 million to support new autism research at
13 universities across the country. These grants are in
addition to $50 million a year that NIH currently provides
to a wide range of autism research projects.
Seven grants, which will run for three years each, focus
on aspects of autism spectrum disorder treatment:
* Comparing two methods for teaching speech to non-
verbal children.
* Refining a method to teach imitation skills.
* Developing a method to teach joint attention skills
using parents as therapists.
* Refining the use of an anti-seizure medication to treat
difficult behavior.
* Testing the usefulness of a cognition-enhancing medication
to treat learning difficulties and mood disturbances.
* Examining the biological effects of a commonly used
mood-stabilizing medication in order to refine its use
in treating autism.
* Testing a new animal (mouse) model to increase
understanding and treatment of self-injurious
behavior.
Six new grants have been awarded to teams of investigators
engaged in promising autism research at: the University
of California, Davis, M.I.N.D. Institute; Emory
University; the University of Florida, Gainesville; the
University of Utah; the University of Missouri; and Washington
University. The grants are designed to help the
research teams prepare, over the next year, to submit
applications to NIH to become major research centers under
the Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment (STAART)
Centers Program.
The STAART program is envisioned to include at least five
centers by 2003, working as a collaborative network, with
each center contributing special expertise in areas of
cause, diagnosis, early detection, and prevention. Each
center will be involved in treatment research.
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