I AM a mother of two children with autism and find the report "Emergence of a 'new autism' epidemic" (NST, April 27) highly offensive. I cannot imagine how anyone can say our children's disability is caused primarily by lack of parental love and attention.

Autism is not a death sentence. There are may interventions for autism: behavioural therapy, speech therapy, sensory integration therapy, etc.

Autism is not contagious. You cannot get autism from attending the same class or school as an autistic child.

Over the past month, Pr4a (Parents Resources for Autism), a local parent-support group, has been working to create a better sense of general public awareness for our kids and their condition by holding an art exhibition, a fund-raising dinner and art auction and talks on autism on RTM2's Hello Malaysia and TraxFm radio.

All this is to get people to recognise that autism is a serious disability, that the number is rising in Malaysia and that these children can benefit if given the right help and intervention.
To care, one must be aware.

In the midst of all this spirit of awareness, we get this report which describes autism or the "new autism" in a whole different light. To say autism is caused by lack of parental attention or by childminders not being adequately trained to interact with the child is just insulting.

Why do we fight for awareness? Because the level of intervention and help an autistic child needs is costly. Only a small section of the community can afford it.

As a parent, I pray the Malaysian government will take notice and recognise that autism is a disability like blindness, deafness or Down's syndrome and should be accorded the same recognition and the funding and the opportunities as all the other disabilities.

It is not a disability caused by a child trying to get the parents' attention nor is it a disability caused by leaving your kids with the maid or a disability caused by the mother being depressed when pregnant.

The children with autism in Malaysia are severely affected in many different ways, across all races, all religions. Autism does not choose its victim and the notion that "Love will heal and cure these children" is just ludicrous.