LGH to conduct hearing screening of newborns

LAHORE : Lahore General Hospital (LGH) has taken a new initiative to ensure hearing screening of newborns.

Hearing test of newborns will be conducted at LGH. For this purpose, a modern audiometric test - Otoacoustic Emissions - machine has been installed at LGH so that babies born can undergo this process. In this regard, an MoU has been signed between Pakistan Ear Foundation and LGH.

Talking in this regard, Prof Dr Al-Fareed Zafar, Principal Ameer Uddin Medical College, said the birth of newborns is very important to find out about their hearing ability and health immediately after the birth. He said that parents do not pay proper attention to the hearing ability of newborns in the beginning but it is a matter of concern that if the hearing is obstructed, the child's speech is also affected and due to negligence for long period the child becomes deaf and dumb and this disability can affect his or her whole life.

MS Dr Faryad Hussain and HoD ENT Unit 2 Dr Muhammad Ilyas, Dr Abdul Aziz, Dr Laila Shafiq and others were also present on this occasion. Prof Al-Fareed Zafar said that today's medical world has progressed to a great extent and according to latest research, child's ability to speak, learn and understand depends on their hearing access because ‘our brains have the ability to speak and understand with cognitive centres develop in the first year of life.’

He said in Pakistan, like other developing countries, the ratio of hearing impaired children is between 4 to 6 in 1,000. He said that if hearing loss is diagnosed within one year of birth by providing timely treatment these children can be educated like other normal ones but unfortunately due to lack of awareness in our society children's early health is ignored due to which they lag far behind in educational, social and professional life.