After reading all the comments on both sides it clear to me that you don’t understand anything about the Somalis and ofcourse you don’t like them at all for whatever reason. I think its better for you to try force yourself to stop this bias behivior and may aproach differently. If you have had some difficulties with few somalis I don’t they are representing for whole the Somalis people in here MN or else where and I don’t blame those parents for not attenting for your conducting in-services for teachers, coz you hate them maybe. Also, I don’t think we ( the somali men) abuse our women or girls on the rail or buses and I am sure you’re making up some stories without prove.

I don’t regard the American people such a bad or evil sociatiy but very decent people regardless how many pedophiles lives next door or maybe going to jail everyday.

Once again, please stop this and leave the Somalis alone!

The CDC link I had used is now dead (annoyingly) but I know I must have the PDF versions of the WHO report.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5601a1.htm

I always make sure I have a copy of any report I cite. As school starts, I archive things on my laptop, so I’ll so some searching.

Wrong Diagnosis has a chart, but I would not rely on it:
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/a/autism/stats-country.htm

@H6:
I hope this doesn’t sound wrong:

The problem to begin with is you can’t test these children for most things: culturally, they distrust all “Western” researchers. I understand this (the West was so nice to African colonies). There are also the religious issues that I will never understand.

Today being all-day staff meetings, my head is spinning as it is…

It’s always possible that HHV-6 has changed and may be causing more severe autism. Or the children have come in contact with a different strain of HHV-6 that they can’t make the right antibodies for. Better to know sooner than later.

What an unnecessary tragedy if HHV-6 is going untreated and could affect the course of autism.

I had a Peace Corp volunteer who has been in the region of Africa that includes Somalia tell me that families still believe their sins and lack of faith lead to diseases in children. Other immigrants, namely from Congo (another large group here) still believe very strongly in curses and family fates.

Because I have strong biases against how I have seen Somali men treat women and girls on the light rail and buses, I can only imagine the blame women receive for autism, retardation, or any other conditions a child might have.

Education is supposed to be the answer — but most of the women will only talk to another woman, ideally a Muslim woman familiar with their fundamentalist Sunni sect. I made the mistake of asking a Shiite from Pakistan about the Somalis and learned that education doesn’t end regional and religious hatreds.

It was clear that autism outreach had to come from within the Somali community or at least from the same understanding of Sunni Islam.

Somehow, autism no longer seemed like a big issue.