Unquestionably, the field of medical sciences has advanced in every aspect. Identifying the causes of diseases, diagnosing and treating diseases are no longer a mystery that is left to faith Gods (some religions claim that diseases are punishment from God while others claim that only God can treat it).
Leaving theological arguemnts aside, we live longer than our forefathers, who also lived longer than their forefathers thanks to knowledge on how to tame our environment.
Thanks to medicine, diseases that are derived from infections are today treatable. The same applies to viruses where vaccines are available. Even when prevention is not available, there are a cocktail of therapeutic drugs which do wonders (e.g. in the case of AIDS).
In addition, there is profound progress in detecting and treating the emperor of all maladies, Cancer; while It is debateable whether cancer mortality has been reduced (only in child leukaemia has mortality dropped) , the detection and diagnosis of the various forms of cancer has improved.
From a Somali perspective, there are no enough statistics on cancer. In the literature, there are reports on the rise of cancer prevalence among Somalis in the west ; breast and cervical cancer in the case of women and liver cancer among men ( most of this is because of hepatises C infections due to sharing needles from immunisations). The rise in detection (NB; this does not necessarily mean a rise in occurrence) could be attributed to several factors; somalis in the diaspora live longer and since the propensity to get cancer increases with age, it is natural that more cancer cases are discovered.
Improvements in hygiene, healthcare provisions have also certainly played a role. In Somalia, perhaps due to inferior healthcare, Somalis died of other diseases making diagnoses difficult. Of course, environmental and dietary issues could also be the culprits.
There is a silent killer on the loose which lurks in every Somali household in the diaspora. It is mainly affecting boys- most of them born in the diaspora- and it seems to be on the rise.
Call it what you want, Autism, Asperger, disorder of neurological development, social interaction disorder, cognitive impairment or ADHD but, it seems that this syndromes with family resemblances are affecting our communities.
It was Eugen Bleuler , a Swiss psychiatrist who gave us the undertones to understanding what is today called Autism. Bleuler analysed schizophrenic patients and discovered that some of the between schizophrenic spells showed inability to interact and go on mute mode.
From a Somali perspective, diseases of the brain are not categorised. A Somali sufferer of psychological or psychiatric disorder is almost always referred to as “insane” “mad” “stupid” or other terms of ridicule.
There have been some “theories” and hypotheses that have been discussed in the literature; perhaps the most known one is the Wakefield study which claimed that there was a causal relationship between immunisation and autism. This study published in 1998 claimed to have found that the administration of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, caused not only autism but also bowel disease. This study could not have been reproduced and is thus deemed as fraudulent.
Other hypotheses such as the absence of sunlight (Vitamin D) in the west have been developed but they are too weak.
Genetic and environmental factors – as always- may have a role to play but there are to date no comprehensive studies that identify the causes.
The problem is that we do not really know the long term effects of autism; most of the somali kids are under the age of 15.
Do you think a cure will be found? Do you think earlier detection methods–say for instance using Amniotic fluid (liquor amnii) could be around the corner?
Who cares! 
(hardly, mothers in 18th century died due to infection after the birth. Pushing the baby out, however big, never killed a mother. Today infection rate is almost zero) 
