I'm trying to remember the title of a novel I read. I'm posting here because I heard about it on the OASIS message board many years ago. Also, I think the author might have been autistic and not well known.
The story line is that there's an epidemic that afflicts children and teens. It affects them neurologically. And so the government starts enforcing quarantines on them.
One of the main characters is an adult researcher, and we follow his parallel story line of a discovery of an ice-age human or human pre-cursor. His son or daughter is suspected of having the disease.
The book was recommended because of some resemblance to how society shuns or isolates autistic children. And possibly, it was mentioned in a discussion about how autism might be an evolutionary step for humans, not a disease to be cured.
I thought it was called simply "Outbreak". But all the "Outbreak" book plots do not seem to match my recollection.
Any leads would be appreciated.