Implementation Of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Programme To Be Expanded

KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 (Bernama) -- The Health Ministry will expand the implementation of the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening programme (UNHS) in ensuring the identification of hearing loss can be done at the early stage. Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the UNHS programme was an increasingly best strategy for early detection of hearing loss, and to date had been implemented at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Setar in Kedah state, Putrajaya Hospital and all university hospitals in the country. "With the implementation of the universal newborn hearing screening, the ministry hopes that hearing loss among infants can be identified by the age of three months while the intervention can be introduced at the age of six months." He said this in his opening speech at the Fourth Asian Paediatric Otorhinolaryngology (ORL) Congress and the Fifth Malaysian International ORL-Head and Neck Surgeons (MSO-HNS) Congress, here, Thursday. His speech text was read by the ministry's deputy director (Medical Profession Development), Dr Rohaizad Yon. Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry would continue to support the hearing screening programme and planned to supply screening equipment, estimated to cost about RM10 million (about US$3 million), to hospitals with otorhinolaryngology services in the coming years. Although not all hospitals are equipped with the UNHS programme, Dr Noor Hisham noted that the hospitals with ORL services in Malaysia were provided with the High Risk Neonatal Hearing screening for the high-risk newborn due to family history, jaundice, low birth weight, mothers on drugs, and infection during pregnancy or problems during delivery. "Statistics from the National Hearing Survey in 2005 showed that 7.2 per cent of children less than 10 years old suffered hearing loss, which were equivalent to 285,000 children," he said. Dr Noor Hisham also said that the National Cochlear Implant Programme which was started in 2008 had benefited 724 children, and the ministry was working closely with the Education Ministry to ensure that these children were able to learn in the mainstream education system. The three-day congresses were organised by the Malaysian Society of Otorhinolaryngologists-MSO-HNS with the theme, 'Issues and Updates: From Infancy to Adulthood', with some 500 medical practitioners attending. The congresses serve as a platform for the delegates to share their knowledge and experience in diseases related to airway and hearing, ontological diseases, head and neck anomalies, infections and other diseases that need special focus. -- BERNAMA