KUTRRH joined the Ministry of Health and other key stakeholders in the health sector in Kenya to celebrate World Hearing Day, observed on 3rd March annually, by participating in the nationwide hearing screening.
Our Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) department and wellness team held a hearing loss medical camp and general health checkups. The target population was 300 workers in Statehouse, 300 parliamentarians, and 100 Afya House Staff.
KUTRRH is committed to playing a pivotal role in mitigating hearing loss problems among the population through early identification of hearing loss and ear diseases and management.
Hearing Loss Statistics
According to WHO (2022), over 5% of the world’s population – or 430 million people – require rehabilitation to address their ‘disabling’ hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children). Nearly 80% of people with disabling hearing loss live in low- and middle-income countries.
The prevalence of hearing loss increases with age; among those older than 60, over 25% are affected by disabling hearing loss.
Hearing loss may be mild, moderate, severe, or profound. It can affect one or both ears and lead to difficulty hearing conversational speech or loud sounds. ‘Hard of hearing’ refers to people with hearing loss ranging from mild to severe.
People who are hard of hearing usually communicate through spoken language and can benefit from hearing aids, cochlear implants, other assistive devices, and captioning. ‘Deaf ’ people mostly have profound hearing loss, which implies little or no hearing.
Hearing Loss Prevention and management
Here are various hearing loss prevention and management methods based on the stages of life:
- Immunization.
- Good maternal and childcare practices;
- Genetic counseling;
- Identification and management of common ear conditions;
- Occupational hearing conservation programs for noise and chemical exposure;
- Safe listening strategies for the reduction of exposure to loud sounds in recreational settings; and
- Rational use of medicines to prevent ototoxic hearing loss.