Hearing impairment screening for newborns begins at Korle Bu

Newborn babies delivered at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra will now be screened for hearing impairment right from the labour ward before being discharged.

The screening will be done as part of the hospital’s regular services for newborns. However, where there are additional interventions that need to be done, they will attract a fee.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, made this known in Accra yesterday at the launch of a newborn hearing screening project the hospital is undertaking in collaboration with Med El, a leading Austria provider of hearing implant systems and Path Medical of Germany.

 Describing the project as very important, Dr Ampomah said as part of the project they were looking at developing a teamwide approach involving obstetricians, paediatricians and midwives so that each of those people who were the first persons to come into contact with any newborn child would be sensitised enough to provide the initial screening on hearing impairment for the child.

He said they were also looking at deepening training as part of the project in order to increase their  numbers to make accessibility and availability easier for patients.

He said it was the aim of the hospital to get to a point that newborn screenings would be done not only for the hearing impairment but for all other childhood abnormalities that occurred so that cases could be picked up early and treatment given in order that  the condition did not deteriorate.

He said the project was not being undertaken only in Korle Bu but they were collaborating with many of their sister health institutions so that in the course of time it could be rolled out across the country.

Early diagnosis

Dr Ampomah pointed out that a significant number of children were born with hearing problems, and when picked up early could be diagnosed, treated or given the necessary support so that they could develop normally.

He said when children were born with hearing problems and they were not picked up early, the children went through life  struggling, with some people even perceiving them to be stupid just because they were unable to respond to them when they talked.

The Head of Department for the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Kenneth Baidoo, said hitherto the hospital was doing the screening of newborns for hearing impairment in bits and pieces, especially among children who went to NICU.

However, this project will be a comprehensive one where parents of every child born at the hospital will get to know the quality of their hearing by the time they came for their first postnatal review.

He explained that when hearing impairment in children was diagnosed late and treated late, the hearing quality would not be the same as that of those whose cases were diagnosed early and given early treatment.

Impairment

He mentioned the causes of hearing impairment in children to be genetic factors; infections developed during pregnancies, severe jaundice in children at birth , some medications given to newborns when they have severe infections and lack of oxygen during delivery.

Dr Baidoo said depending on the level of impairment of the child, they could provide the child with hearing aids to help them to hear while for severe hearing loss, cochlear implants were available for such children.

The Business Development and Regional Manager for Africa of Med El, Stephanie Unterrieder MA, and Peter Böttcher of Path Medical, advised health workers at the programme to inform parents of the availability of the screening programme at the hospital.

As part of the collaboration, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital was presented with four screening devices and one diagnostic device for hearing.