Damascus-SANA
Today, the Ministry of Health launched the newborn audiometric survey program within the comprehensive survey program in the newborn clinics, which is implemented in cooperation with the Ministries of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Defense, Interior, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the Syrian Organization for Persons with Disabilities Amal.
The program aims to conduct a 100 percent audiometric survey for newborns before reaching one month of age, diagnose hearing loss before the age of 3 months, and early intervention before the age of 6 months, through audiological survey centers and audio surveys, moving to conduct audiometric surveys in all hospitals where deliveries take place in the future.
In his speech during the launch of the program at the Al-Sham Hotel in Damascus, the Minister of Health, Dr. Hassan Al-Ghobash, stated that the audiological survey in newborns is one of the components of the national program for the early detection of hearing loss, which was launched last June and targeted only children under the age of five, pointing out that the audio survey program is now focused on To detect hearing loss in newborns before the age of 3 months to ensure appropriate intervention for treatment.
For her part, the Director of Primary Health Care at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Razan Al-Tarabishi, pointed out the importance of the project to overcome the problems of hearing loss and take remedial measures in a timely manner, noting that there are more than 25 centers in a number of governorates to detect early hearing loss and conduct audiological survey of newborns.
Tarabishi noted that the audiometric survey program also aims to spread awareness of the importance of detecting hearing loss and introducing the risk factors that cause it, most of which can be detected through premarital clinics because genetic factors constitute 50 percent of the causes of hearing loss.
In turn, the Head of the Otological Diseases Division at the University Hospital, Dr. Hossam Hadid, indicated that the role of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is to graduate academic health cadres in universities through the specialization of health sciences in audiology, speech and language sciences, noting that the Pediatric and Obstetrics Hospital is one of the centers
Which conducts the detection of hearing loss and is prepared to participate in the audio survey program, in addition to the specialized audiology unit at Al-Mowasat Hospital, which receives all cases that need a diagnostic machine and assess hearing of all ages.
The Head of the Newborn Survey Department at Tishreen Military Hospital, Dr. Wafa Darwish, indicated that during the year 2021 there were 1,025 births in the hospital, of which an audiometric survey was conducted for 1,000 newborns with the aim of early detection of hearing loss, stressing that the military hospitals in various governorates conduct all diagnostic investigations to detect it and appropriate therapeutic interventions.
The Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Damascus and the representative of the Amal Organization, Dr. Samer Mohsen, stated that the organization provides integrated services for the care of persons with hearing disabilities, from detection to rehabilitation after snail transplantation, follow-up, and securing hearing aids, in addition to training cadres working in this field from various parties, considering that the audio survey program In cooperation with partners, it contributes to the development of work in this field.
Rama Rashidi