The president of the United States, Donald Trump, jumped the scientific community on Monday, September 22, intimidating pregnant women who do not take paracetamol, associating it with a high risk of autism for children.
“Do not take it” and “Do not give you your baby,” he insisted on the US president at a press conference at the White House dedicated to autism, one of his main concerns. “According to a rumor, and I don’t know if this is the case, they do not have a paracetamol in Cuba because they have nothing to pay the paracetamol. Well, they hardly have autism,” he said.
However, this risk is not established. “Some observation studies have suggested a possible association between prenatal exhibition to Paracetamol and Autism, but evidence remains incoherent,” said a spokesman for the World Health Organization on Tuesday, Tarik Jasarevic questioned the words of the US President, during regular press information.
“Several studies have not established any relationship of this type,” he said, asking “caution before concluding that a causal link” between Paracetamol and autism.
“A large amount of pregnant women data used Paracetamol during their pregnancy indicates that there is no risk of malformations in the development fetus or newborns,” said the European drug agency in a press release.
Multiple causes
Autistic spectrum disorders (TSA) “are part of neurological development disorders,” explains health insurance in place. They are characterized by “a persistent deficit in communication and social interactions”, as well as “restriction and repetition of behavior, interests and activities.” However, their manifestations vary greatly from person to person and evolve over time.
Today, the established causes of TSA are multiple. According to the Pasteur Institute site, “for most autistic people, there is not a single cause identified through a medical exam.”
“When we find a strong genetic anomaly, we can say that it is for this. But most of the time, it is impossible,” said Professor Richard Delore, responsible for the center of excellence for autism and neurological development disorders of the Robert-Debré hospital in Paris.
Complex genetic factors
“In the general population, the causes are mainly genetic,” said the head of the Pedo Perceiatry Service at the Robert-Debré hospital. But autistic spectrum disorders are very varied and genetic mutations that can lead to very numerous.
As the Government site dedicated to autism explains, “if in some cases, the variation of a single gene can explain a large part of the symptoms of a patient, in other cases the genetic situation is much more complex, sometimes it implies more than one hundred genes that would not have an effect individually, but that combine together, increase the risk of having an automatic spectrum disorder.”
“And the situation is even more complex since in 10 to 20% of people, these genetic changes are not inherited, but appeared Novo (Spontaneously), “adds the site.
Environmental factors
Environmental factors have also been identified by research as promoting the appearance of these disorders. Among them, the mother during pregnancy is taken by antiepileptic drugs such as excess, premature birth, lack of oxygen at birth …
“There are many factors that can be the cause of the disorder. Often, it is not a factor that carries it, it is a complete architecture that is at the origin of the disorder,” explains Richard Delore.
“This model is true for many diseases with complex determinism, such as hypertension, diabetes, cancers …”, he adds. Illustrates like this: “For example, a person who will smoke a package of cigarettes a day may not have lung cancer, when another who smokes once in time will have one.”
Today, “we are beginning to have a real cartography of genetic anomalies” that increase the probability of developing an autistic spectrum disorder, says the researcher of the unity of human genetics and the cognitive function of the Pasteur Institute. “But that gives us even more the idea that there are really individual specificities,” adds Richard Delore.
On the other hand, today, “adult scientific data shows that neither vaccines nor the psychological characteristics of parents are Tea risk factors,” said the government’s site on autism.
“Vaccines save lives, as we know. Vaccines do not cause autism,” he also hit the WHO spokesman on Tuesday.
“Almost 62 million people live with an autistic spectrum disorder worldwide, and it is clear that, as an international community, we must redouble their efforts to understand (their) causes,” Tarik Jasarevic said.
Source: BFM TV
