BuaNews (Tshwane)
Themba Gadebe
13 August 2007
Johannesburg — Detecting deafness in early childhood can help deal with the developmental problems children may face later in life, says the Minister of Health.
Early hearing loss detection programmes will help to deal with such constraints to development, Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said Monday at the first African Conference on Early Childhood and Deafness.
Children with hearing loss, explained the minister, were one of the most vulnerable and prevalent groups for which early childhood development initiatives must be secured.
"These children should not be seen as social outcasts or difficult, but should be treated with special attention, but just like any other child."
Minister Tshabalala-Msimang said there was a need for early hearing detection and intervention programmes as infant hearing loss caused developmental constraints in children.
"Children in such programmes will be afforded an opportunity to develop to their maximum potential, allowing them to become active participants and productive members of their families and communities."
She indicated that early detection and intervention for infants with hearing loss rapidly had become the standard of care in developed countries.
Unfortunately, she added, the implementation of widespread screening programmes has not spilt over to developing countries where two thirds of the world's children with hearing loss resided.
"The distribution of specialised health care professionals to do infant screening in developing countries especially in rural areas is limited," she said.
The early childhood phase, provides a window of opportunity that, if capitalised on, will result in many positive benefits for the future of individual children, families and society as a whole, according to the minister.
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) global estimate for "disabling" hearing impairment has more than doubled in the decade between 1995 and 2005 from 120 million, to at least 278 million.
Two-thirds of these individuals live in developing countries and 25 percent of these losses are estimated to have originated from childhood.
The UNICEF statistics estimates, between 800 to 900 babies are born with hearing loss everyday in developing countries.
"These statistics are a call for all of us to embark on initiatives which will enable us to deal with this challenge as it confronts us," the minister said, adding that hearing loss is referred to as the silent, overlooked epidemic in developing countries.
"It is an epidemic firstly because of its high prevalence in the developing world, and secondly because if not detected on time it renders a severe threat to essential quality of life indicators." -
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