The Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Programme

Congenital hearing loss occurs most frequently at birth. The World Health Organization (2010) indicated newborn hearing impairment averages around 6 per 1000 births. Children develop language, communication, and cognitive skills by hearing. The early identification of hearing loss is necessary for healthy child development. With advancements in the method of assessing hearing status of newborns objectively, the implementation of a universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) programme is an effective system to identify hearing loss early (Das et al., 2020). While early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) focuses on the overall journey of the child from identification, diagnosis, and management (Moodley & Storbeck, 2015). The South African government recognises the value of UNHS; however, it has not been adopted within the public health sector that services approximately 80% of the population (Kanji, 2018). Recent studies have widely indicated that the implementation of an EHDI programme will have adverse economic effects in future.

Gallery

← Previous → Next