Epidemic?

"How come there's no cure for a*****?"
"They're working on it," she says wearily. "They're working on it."

Back in the early 1980s, after a diagnostic manual redefined a***** to include......

While there is likely a genetic component in most kids who get a*****, not everyone with this genetic predisposition suffers from it....

A British scholar named Andrew Wakefield came up with a parallel theory that focused on childhood vaccinations....

In hopes of finding a cure, geneticists are furiously studying a***** and have actually cloned several genes that seem to be linked to the disease. But whatever has caused the a***** upswing, it's unlikely genetics alone are going to reverse the trend. "The environment plays such a big role in this disease," says Malveaux, the Howard University dean. "It's not one of those diseases where if you have the genes you'll get the disease -- though genes may affect the ultimate severity. There's nothing we can do about the genetics right now anyway......

Snipped from An article by Arthur Allen - Salon - August 31, 1998