Experts Urge Mandatory Screening For Hearing Loss In Babies

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Medical experts have called for mandatory hearing screening for newly born babies in the country for early detection of hearing problem.

The medical experts which include consultants, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Surgeons, Audiologist, and other health specialists made this call when they spoke to journalists at Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre in Abuja, following the successful cochlear implantation on three persons at the hospital, in collaboration with MED-EL, an Austria-based global medical technology company that specialised in hearing implants and devices.

A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensor neural hearing loss with sound perception. It is a small electronic device that electrically stimulates the cochlear nerve (nerve for hearing).
The team of experts said that screening of newly born in the first three months is very important, as early detection of faults would enable the child access the procedure early so that they could learn to hear like the normal child.
A consultant nephrologist and medical director of the Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre, Dr Olatise Olalekan, while speaking on the medical feat achieved by Nigeria and the Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre, said “I have always been one person who believes that we can get these things done here in our country so that we have our Nigerians having medical procedures and surgeries at the comfort of their country with support of their family members instead of travelling out of the country to have these surgeries.
“Though the COVID-19 pandemic slowed us down a little, we are back on track and I’m hopeful that this is a welcome development for Nigeria especially knowing that these health problems will need to be sorted out in the country.”
Olalekan noted that five cochlear implants were done for patients with deafness in 2020 with the support of MED-EL. He described the partnership with MED-EL as robust, noting that it would ensure the implant device was available in the hospital and in the country, with MED-EL providing support to the hospital’s health personnel on the use of the device and its maintenance.
The consultant ENT Surgeon with the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Plateau State, Prof Adoga Agida Samuel, explained that there were different types of hearing loss, adding that the treatment of the cases also varies, depending on the type of hearing loss.
Samuel who is on leave of absence to set up ENT Cochlear implant at Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre noted that the team at Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre was concerned with profound hearing loss which is otherwise known as deafness which, according to him, “has serious implications for families.”