The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Project for hearing impaired

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Project for hearing impaired

It will identify, treat, rehabilitate the persons in 2 months

HYDERABAD: With an estimated 6.8 per cent of the population suffering from hearing loss and more than 25,000 babies born every year with the problem, a programme to identify, treat and rehabilitate persons of all age groups will be launched in two months.

It will be taken up across 25 districts on a pilot basis under a National Project for Prevention and Control of Deafness.

The programme is proposed to be extended to all districts in the next five years, T.V. Krishna Rao, member, Central Coordination Committee, National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness and former president of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India, told The Hindu.

At least 15 to 17 p.c of school children were suffering from hearing impairment. The stress of the programme would be on children and newborns, as the results would be much better in them. Lamenting that the problem did not receive the attention it ought to have got from Governments for many years, he pointed out that early detection – between six months to three years – would enable 80 per cent of such children to go to a normal school through proper rehabilitation. The selected districts have been identified as nodal points. The preliminary tests for treating and rehabilitating patients referred by the primary or school health centres would be conducted at the district hospital. The hospital, in turn, would be attached to a centre of excellence where sophisticated surgeries could be performed. Hearing aids would be provided and speech therapy conducted. In Andhra Pradesh, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy (King Koti Hospital) districts have been selected.

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