Did You Know 60% Of Childhood Hearing Loss Is Due To Preventable Causes

“The year is 1989, the mornings of revolution, the year when my birth country begins to fall apart. I am scrubbing the enormous bearded head on a pedestal — in the center of Leo Tolstoy Square, one block from our first apartment.

 

 This is childhood: Once a year, my classmates and I are sent to the center of the square. We climb on top of one another’s bodies and scrub Tolstoy’s nostrils, ears.

 

In the distance, my parents laugh, watching. Behind them, a band of sailors marches along — Odessa is a seaport, with a large navy school. The young captain shouts, though I can’t hear him: left, right, left, right. 

 

The sailors’ legs go up and down, up and down. Aware I see her from my Tolstoy post, my middle-aged, slightly heavy mother begins to march at the end of their column, her legs high, mimicking their legs, as my father salutes.”

Ilya Kaminsky, Searching for a lost Odessa 

This was the case of Ukranian poet, Ilya Kaminsky. Due to a misdiagnosis, Ilya was only 4 years old when he lost most of his hearing. Although Ilya is only one in many, the World Health Organization reported that globally, a staggering 60% of children below the age of 15 suffer from disabling hearing loss. The causes of which are mostly preventable.

The vast majority live in low- and middle- income countries where they often do not have access to appropriate ear and hearing care services. Without suitable interventions, hearing loss poses a significant challenge in the lives of those affected.

Some of the leading causes are childhood infections such as measles, mumps, rubella, and meningitis. Much like the case of Ilya Kaminsky, his doctor diagnosed him with the cold instead of mumps. Amongst children, chronic otitis media (long-standing middle ear infection) was found to be the most common cause of hearing loss. 

In addition, complications upon birth such as prematurity, low birth weight, and jaundice also contribute to the causative factors behind this debilitating disease. Finally, certain medications of ototoxic (ear-damaging) nature like aspirin, ibuprofen and even some antibiotics also play a role. 

WHO estimated that up to five out of every 1000 babies are born with hearing loss or acquire it soon after birth. Hearing loss can have a significant impact on a child’s development and educational achievements.

Strategies for the prevention 

• Implement infant and school-based hearing screening
• Reducing one’s exposure to loud sound ( recreational/environmental )
• Immunizing children against childhood infections 
• Make hearing devices and communication therapies accessible
• Early assessment followed by prompt and suitable interventions for infants at risk. 
• Raise awareness to promote hearing care and reduce the stigma

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Reference: 

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss

Tags

• acquired hearing loss
• child
• children health
• hearing loss