‘Early detection, intervention to prevent hearing loss’

Islamabad : The World Hearing Day was observed at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences here on Tuesday with experts calling for the early detection and intervention to prevent hearing loss.

They said the timely and effective care could enable people with hearing loss to achieve their full potential.

The theme for the day was 'Hearing for life, don’t let hearing loss limit you'.

The PIMS holds the event every year to raise awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss and promote ear and hearing care.

Prof Dr Altaf Hussain, consultant ENT and Head of department, organised the event, which was attended by a large number of doctors from Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

It was inaugurated by PIMS executive director Prof Anser Maqsood, while Prof Tanveer Khaliq, Vice chancellor, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, was the chief guest during the concluding session.

Prof Dr Rizwan Taj, Principal of the Federal Medical and Dental College, also addressed the scientific session. The speakers highlighted the impact of hearing loss on patients' daily life and called for the early detection and intervention in case of hearing loss.

According to them, there are 360 million persons in the world with disabling hearing loss (5.3% of the world’s population), while 328 million (91%)of these are adults (183 million men and 145 million women). A total of 32 (9%) million of them are children.

The prevalence of disabling hearing loss in adults over 65 years is the highest in South Asia. In Pakistan, 1.6 per 1000 is suffering from profound hearing loss. So approximately 7-8% Pakistani population is suffering from different types of deafness.

Prof Dr Altaf Hussain told the audience that early intervention is very important for the hearing impaired person.

"First two to three years of life are very important for speech development. Children who are deprived of hearing during this period have little chance of speech development and are likely to resort to sign language for their communication in their future life. However, early intervention is done during this period and their hearing is restored/corrected. These children can develop speech and language and can enter into mainstream education without having the need of special schooling," he said.

Prof Dr Altaf said hearing aids were helpful in moderate to severe degree of hearing losses but were not very effective in severe to profound degree of hearing loss.

He said cochlear implants were the method of choice for this category of hearing loss all over the world.