WHO passes Bangladesh-backed resolution on autism

The World Health Assembly of World Health Organisation (WHO) Friday passed a Bangladesh-pushed resolution on autism in Geneva.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammed Nasim has hailed it "a great success" for Bangladesh, bdnews24.com reported.

Bangladesh placed the resolution last year that received immediate board approval.

The annual assembly is the supreme decision-making body of the WHO that passes such resolutions.

Passing a resolution means all 194 member states agree with it.

"Now the neuro-development disorder has received global attention (in real term)," Nasim said in his immediate reaction. "Every country will come up with technical and financial support."

There will be "omprehensive and coordinated efforts" for the management of autism spectrum disorder as per the resolution, he said.

Autism appears in the first three years of life and affects the brain's normal development, hampering social and communication skills.

Those who suffer cannot pick up self-care tasks -- dressing, self-feeding, using toilet and others - by watching and imitating. They do not make eye contact and have a single-track thought process.

But due to lack of trained manpower, many countries, particularly the developing ones, miss early diagnosis, aggravating their sufferings.

Many countries, mostly those in South Asia including Bangladesh, do not even know the extent of the disorder.

But a latest US study finds one in every 68 children to be autistic -- a rate 30 percent higher than what it was three years ago.