Newborn Hearing Screening Programme: Over 1.5 lakh infants screened so far in Kochi

KOCHI: The Newborn Hearing Screening Programme hailed as a path breaking health initiative has enabled the screening of over 1.5 lakh infants in the state so far since taking off over 15 years ago.  Of these, hearing defect was detected in 317 kids.

"If we detect hearing loss at birth and begin the treatment, majority of the kids will be able to develop near normal speech and language skills with the help of hearing aids alone. The expensive surgeries and the learning disability can be avoided in such cases," said Dr Abraham K Paul, convener, Newborn Hearing Screening in Kerala. In the beginning, only two hospitals were associated with the programme. Not only this, there was  a lone screening equipment available, with just one trained person around to conduct the test.

Over the next six months,  the first case of possible hearing loss was detected which gave the programme a boost. Soon, it was extended to 32 city-based hospitals with the addition of five screening personnel and five machines. The concept of centralised hearing detection was floated here and is referred to as  'Ernakulam district model'. It was implemented across the district a few years  ago on the advice of the-then District Collector M G Rajamanickam. Now, 78 of the total 91 hospitals in the district are associated with the project. Among them, 13 have their own hearing screening equipment. An audiologist and eight screening personnel are now part of the programme in the district.

The programme's highlight is not all hospitals have to invest in the rather expensive machine. The 'Ernakulam district model' has been lauded by WHO and moves are afoot to implement the scheme in other parts of the country and South East Asia. From its humble beginnings in 2003, the programme picked up steam in 2013.