PUNE:
Health
minister Rajesh Tope said that screening of newborns for hearing ability will
be launched in Pune as an experimental project. Gadchiroli and Jalna will also
be a part of the project.
Dr Bhagwan Pawar, district health officer, said that
primary healthcare centres will soon start the screening facility. “We do not
have a newborn screening for checking the hearing capacity of infants. Hence,
the initiative will soon be introduced at primary healthcare centers,” said
Pawar.
The project was conceived by Member of Parliament
(MP) Supriya Sule and presented by Abhijit Raut, state organiser, Disability Rights
Development Forum, Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan. Dr Arti Kinikar, head of
paediatric department at Sassoon General Hospital (SGH), welcomed the decision.
“We at Sassoon General Hospital started a similar
programme in 2017. It has helped in timely detection of hearing disability in a
lot of children and provide treatment,” said Kinikar. She said that early
detection and confirmation of hearing impairment can help children get therapy
early and improve their cognitive development.
There was a detailed discussion on the
implementation of Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) method in newborns. The test
checks the sounds produced by the cochlea. The National Deafness Prevention Programme
is being implemented in 16 places in the state and while expanding its scope,
instructions were given to implement it across the state.
At present, the number of hearing and language
impaired people in the state is around 92,000, of which 51% are in rural areas
and 49% in urban areas. Deafness can be prevented if the test is done at an
early stage. Therefore, the programme should be planned according to the method
of early diagnosis and treatment, a state official said.
“The mobile unit will visit a primary health centre
and screen the newborns. Hearing tests can also be done during a child’s immunization
session,” said Tope.
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