Australian cricketer and Cochlear’s Global Hearing Ambassador Brett Lee on Sunday lauded Kerala for making good progress in newborn hearing screening.
Speaking at a function organised by Cochlear here, Mr. Lee said hearing screening should be made mandatory across all hospitals in the State.
Kerala is the first State in the country to provide hearing screening in all government centres.
Good progress
“Kerala has made tremendous progress in the last four years and the efforts must be applauded. There are 61 maternity centres under the government in the State and all the centres have been equipped with hearing screeners. Kerala’s endeavors to push for Universal Newborn Hearing Screening is an outstanding example of trailblazing leadership in introducing such an important healthcare initiative in the country. Now, the average number of newborn babies screened for hearing loss in government set up is one lakh per year. We hope to see a similar success rate in the private hospitals. We must and will strive together to complete the last mile so that no child will have to live in silence,” the Australian pace bowler said.
Kerala has more than 1.05 lakh people suffering from severe hearing impairment.
WHO statistics
According to the WHO, hearing loss affects more than 5% of the world’s population or over 466 million people in the world suffer from disabling hearing loss.