Netcare has launched a hearing screening programme for all newborn babies at its hospital maternity units countrywide.
The programme is the first of its kind in South Africa and aims to identify hearing loss in infants as early as possible, so that it can be addressed and, as far as possible, prevent it from impacting these babies’ development.
“It is estimated that between four and six in every 1 000 South African children will be born with or will develop hearing loss in their first weeks of life,” said Jacques du Plessis, managing director of the Netcare hospital division.
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The programme has been made possible by Netcare’s collaboration with the South African Association of Audiologists (SAAA) and the non-profit organisation, Hi Hopes.
Dr Susan Strauss, national president of the SAAA and chairperson of the organising committee of the World Congress of Audiology 2018, said that it was a privilege for the SAAA and its audiologists to collaborate with Netcare to deliver the new infant screening programme.
“If hearing impairments are detected as soon as possible after birth, they can then be addressed before they impact a child’s development, giving them the best possible start in life.
“It is all about early access to critical hearing services for babies with disabling hearing loss and meaningfully improved outcomes for these children,” she said.
Prof Claudine Storbeck, director of Hi Hopes, an organisation that enables early intervention for deaf and hard of hearing infants, said that the role of Hi Hopes within the Netcare programme will be to facilitate family-centred early intervention and provide support for each affected family within their home context.
“Neonates who have hearing loss and who do not receive appropriate intervention, treatment and management early on, can experience a range of significant developmental delays including communication, speech and language, as they grow up,” said Storbeck, who is also the director of the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.
“The programme comes at a time in which there has been a strong movement towards universal newborn hearing screening internationally.”
Storbeck said that international guidelines propose that screening for hearing loss occurs by no later than one month of age, and early intervention should be in place by no later than six months of age.
The specific interventions will depend on the cause of the hearing impairment and the specific circumstances of the child.
They can, however, include amplification, therapeutic interventions, as well as holistic child and family-centred early intervention.
According to Storbeck, there has never been a formal national data management system of children with hearing loss in South Africa.
Netcare, in partnership with Hi Hopes, has, therefore, launched a data management application that will facilitate the capturing of appropriate data about the Netcare programme.
She said that while the data will only cover data from Netcare hospitals, it should reveal some important trends regarding hearing impairment in children locally.
“The implementation of the screening programme is exciting as it will provide many infants with hearing impairment with the opportunity to have their hearing problems addressed timeously and to develop to their full potential,” concluded du Plessis.
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