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Mission to create deafness free Tamil Nadu

Rs 5.22 crore alloted for implementing the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness

Chennai: It has got everything in the external twin appendages to improve alertness through hearing and also overcome impairment.Taking into account the magnitude of hearing disability among the people, the government has embarked on a mission to create a deafness-free state. As part of this goal, the government has allotted about Rs 5.22 crore for implementing the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness. Accordingly, a massive screening would be taken up to detect deafness among the population and take up appropriate treatment.

On the cards is to establish weekly clinics at the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Taluk Hospitals and equip them with ENT equipment.Tamil Nadu is the first state to pilot and extend the national programme throughout the state as far back as in 2007-08.Thanjavur, Villupuram and Vellore were initially covered and gradually the programme was extended to the remaining districts in the state.

People normally tend to ignore problems pertaining to the ear, until its too late. Addressing the problems and performing surgeries to restore or correct hearing is a specialised task, claims Prof. K. K. Ramalingam who has floated the Indian Society of Otology about 23 years ago.“Nearly 33 per cent of school children don’t perform well in schools, not because they are not intelligent, but because they have mild hearing defects. And nearly 8 per cent of school children have wax in their ears and discharge of puss from ears,” the renowned Chennai Otologist (ear surgeon) says.

According to a study by the Madras ENT Research Foundation, six of every 1,000 kids were victims of severe to profound deafness and this was three times the national average and six time the international average.The study conducted over a period of ten years from 2003 to 2013 saw the screening of over 50,000 children below 12 years of age across Tamil Nadu

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