To manage the hearing loss in newborn and young children, Punjab Government on Monday launched Automated Auditory Brainstem Response (AABR) system under Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Programme.
“Punjab Government is the first state in the country to introduce SOHUM (AABR) Automated Auditory Brainstem Response system. This first of its kind initiative will effectively screen hearing loss in newborn and young children,” said the state Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu.
Underscoring the key features of the programme, Sidhu said that coupled with high sensitivity, this technology will definitely revolutionize the old school screening system to cure the hearing loss in children. He said that after diagnosing the hearing disability in children, the State Government also provides free of cost a cochlear implant which is a surgically-implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person with sensorineural hearing loss a modified sense of sound.
Pointing out that the hearing loss is one of the major birth defects in children, the Minister said that in a developing country like India five to six per thousand children are born with this defect. Screening of hearing loss in newborn and children has remained a challenge considering the traditional methods that were available in India till date, he added.
National Health Mission’s mission director Kumar Rahul said that Punjab has been leading all other states in effective screening for hearing loss and the state Health Department is all set to expand this programme up to the grass root level by providing these indigenous machines to all 22 district hospitals.
Hearing impairment treatment services are already covered under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), he added.
The state’s Director Health Services Dr GB Singh said that the Health Department is already treating infants and young children for congenital diseases like club foot, hearing impairment, and cleft lips etc under RBSK, this breakthrough will eventually help in diagnosing hearing impairment at early stage and making intervention at the earliest.
The nodal officer for National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD), Dr Baljit Kaur pointed out that with the use of these devices, we can shift from traditional methods of screening to modern, tested, and fool-proof method. “These devices will be available at 22 neonatal centers across Punjab, and screening will be carried out under the supervision of a Pediatrician,” she said.