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Hearing impairment

in Sindh growing'

KARACHI: Sindh province was noticed to have high incidence rate of hearing impairment among its inhabitants, with 2,100 infants born every year with minor to major hearing defects.

Speakers at a training workshop held here at ENT Unit-I, Civil Hospital Karachi, for doctors of the concerned department also mentioned that 700 babies were born audibly impaired, per annum in Karachi only.

It was said that majority of these neonates born with the disability could be treated at early age of their lives with the help Audio Emission Machine.

Prof Shabih H Zaidi regretted that defness and hearing impairment have often been neglected "these defects lead to poor language acquisition and delayed school progress in children, occupational problems in adults and social isolation at all ages," Prof Shabih said.

Training Coordinator, Prof Iqbal from Manchester University cited six major causes of deafness in Pakistan ranging from communicable diseases, discharging ear, ototoxicity due to drugs abuse, consanguinity, noise induced hearing impairment, metabolic disorders due to nutritional deficiencies as iodine deficiency.

He maintained that all these causes were preventable and whenever prevention has been ineffective therapeutic relief and rehabilitation through hearing aids and vocational training had been possible.

Principal, Dow Medical College, Prof Illahi Bux Soomro referred to recent studies showing that every fifth person of the local population to be suffering from ear problems.

WHO representative for Sindh, Dr Asad Ali Abro said that the number of people with hearing defects was rising around the world.

He regretted that there was still a dearth of accurate, population based data on the occurrence and causes of the hearing impairment, particularly in the developing countries.

The knowledge, he said is essential for governments to determine priorities within their health programmes, to set up and monitor preventive strategies and to predict the needs for the health care provision within the framework of primary health care.

Sindh Minister for Health, Dr S M Rab who inaugurated the workshop hailed Prof Iqbal for donating the much needed Audio Emission Machine to Civil Hospital Karachi.ÑAPP