Hearing loss doesn’t affect the individual, it affects how whole sections of society function. More than 360 million people worldwide suffer from hearing loss – including 32 million children. And sadly, half the global cases – some 180 million – would be preventable if proper measures were put into action.
The InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) today issued a statement on ‘A Call for Action to Strengthen Healthcare for Hearing Loss’, which has so far been endorsed by more than 40 IAMP member academies.
The statement calls on governments and other healthcare providers to implement a number of practices. It focuses, in particular, on five steps, including:
- improved healthcare provision in the area of hearing loss (universal hearing screening in birthing centres, and accessible and affordable hearing aids and cochlear implants);
- ensuring public health measures account for the causes of hearing loss;
- addressing hearing loss in both children and adults, while acknowledging the differences between these groups;
- providing educational programmes for children with hearing loss, their relatives and communities;
- establishing research and innovation programmes targeted at hearing loss priorities (for example, developing novel screening and diagnostic techniques, and encouraging innovation in the field of affordable high quality, low-cost hearing aids and low-cost batteries).
"Failure to diagnose and hearing loss at early stages (by six months of age) can partially or totally impair hearing in children," says IAMP Coordinator Peter McGrath. "This in turn causes delays in developing speech, language and cognitive skills, with knock-on effects such as unnecessary learning difficulties in school and difficulties interacting with family and friends."
Simple tests on newborn children could reveal if the child has hearing problems. Regular childhood vaccinations that prevent diseases like rubella can also avoid complications that lead to hearing loss. And reducing exposure to loud noises in the workplace can prevent impairment of hearing function in adults.
"Infants and young children born with hearing loss require three essential elements in the first years of life to mitigate the effects of deafness," confirms Paige Stringer, Founder and Executive Director of the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss who contributed to drafting the IAMP Statement. “These are: early identification of hearing loss, access to appropriate hearing technology, and the ongoing support of locally-based professionals trained in audiology and early intervention. All of these are severely lacking in many low- and middle-income countries."
In parallel with the release of the statement, a ‘Comment’ article is being published in the leading medical journal, The Lancet on 3 March.
The Statement (full text) and more information are available here.
ABOUT IAMP
• IAMP, a network of 73 of the world's medical academies and medical sections of academies of science and engineering, is committed to improving health world-wide. The goals of IAMP are: to strengthen the capacity of academies to provide evidence based advice to governments on health and science policy; to support the creation of new academies; to support the creation of projects by member academies to strengthen research and higher education in their countries; and to issue consensus statements on matters of importance to global health. The IAMP Secretariat is hosted by TWAS, in Trieste, Italy.
More information about IAMP can be found at: www.iamp-online.org