ADDIS ABABA — Hearing for Ethiopia Association has announced that it has received essential medical equipment from the Austrian company MED-EL for diagnosing hearing impairment.
The President of Hearing for Ethiopia Association, Dr. Eshak Bedir, stated that the donated equipment, which is expensive and worth millions of birr, includes Otoacoustic Emission (OAE) and Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) machines. This support has been secured at a critical time, as there is a special need for such equipment in the country, he said.
He further mentioned that these advanced diagnostic tools will be made available for use in four selected medical institutions, named Tikur Anbesa Hospital, Petros Specialized Hospital, Koria Hospital, and Migbare Senai General Hospital. He also expressed his hope that the implementation of this equipment would help save the lives of many children.
The Ambassador of Austria, Dr. Simon Knapp, stated that this partnership will empower the hearing healthcare sector in these targeted countries to develop national hearing screening strategies and continue the development of improved services for hearing impaired persons in general.
Through cooperation efforts, private stakeholders, civil society NGOs, and government institutions partner with health institutions to develop the funding instruments to make all these possible and to support the hearing impaired public sector in the country.
Additionally, the ambassador stated that we want these alliances to provide innovation, global experience, and ongoing research for future needs, thereby offering the services that are essential in every nation on the globe. In addition, to strengthen healthcare institution growth and capacity building.
The World Health Organization estimates that around 460 million people suffer from hearing loss globally, with 25-80% of them living in low- to middle-income countries, like Ethiopia. Fatuma Saied, Executive Director of the Ministry of Health, Inclusive Women, and Social Affairs, noted that there are not enough comprehensive studies to determine the exact number of Ethiopians with hearing problems, but the figure is believed to exceed five million.
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She emphasized that many children in Ethiopia are affected by this issue, and a significant portion of the population is suffering from hearing loss due to natural or man-made causes. The main challenge, she explained, is the lack of a complete medical infrastructure to treat ear-related problems and identify them early on. The absence of any standardized protocol to assess the hearing ability of infants has exacerbated the situation, she said.
To address this, Es-hak remarked that it will continue to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to conduct hearing screening programs in various schools and throughout the country.
Hearing for Ethiopia is working in partnership with concerned parties and private companies, a crucial step towards improving access to essential hearing health services and addressing the needs of the hearing-impaired population in Ethiopia.
