China's largest screening of newborns reveals that six in every 1,000 infants screened are deaf. The rate is much higher than that required by the Ministry of Public Health.
In 2000 and 2001, a total of 4,800 new babies born in 2000 in the Beijing Haidian Health Center for Women and Children have been screened in hospital by the Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology.
According to clinical audiology researcher Qi Yisheng, head of the program, all the newborns were evaluated between 6-24 weeks old by an international screening method, with the technical name of otoacoustic emission hearing screening.
Their research reports show that of the 38 newborns who failedthe screening, 29 were diagnosed as suffering congenital hearing loss, some 0.604 percent of the total screened.
"As universal screening of newborns' hearing in China is still at an early stage, there are no nationwide hearing loss figures available," Qi explained.
"But if we take the overseas incidence of 0.1-0.3 percent as a reference, newborns suffering hearing loss in China will be between 20,000 and 60,000 a year," he said.
Hearing loss is a common ailment. Without timely diagnosis and intervention, deaf babies will find it hard to acquire speech, cognition and understanding and they may be unable to speak during their lifetime.
As it is widely accepted that medical diagnosis and treatment are best started before babies are six-months old, audiologists suggest that nationwide hearing screening of all newborns within an officially-set time should be implemented as soon as possible.
There are only two diseases for which the Ministry of Public Health currently screens among neonates. They are hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria, which both occur during the development of the foetus with 0.02 percent of newborns suffering from the formerand 0.01 percent from the latter.
This study shows 76.32 percent of babies with hearing loss have received diagnostic tests and treatment including the fitting of hearing aids, implantation of an artificial cochlea and specialtraining.
Many quality indicators of the research have reached the standards set by the America-based Joint Committee on Infant Hearing in 2000.
Experts said that this proves the feasibility of the universal newborn hearing screening in China.
The Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology began Infant hearing loss screening in 1996.
Since then, 34,600 neonates have been screened at the institute's five screening bases in Beijing and east China's Shandong Province, the biggest of all domestic institutions doing this type of research.
(People's Daily July 03, 2002)
