Early hearing detection and intervention in South Africa
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Date
Authors
Swanepoel, De Wet
Storbeck, Claudine
Friedland, Peter L.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
Early hearing detection and intervention programs have become the standard of care to ensure optimal outcomes for infants with hearing loss, their families and society at large. The overwhelming majority of infants with congenital or early-onset permanent bilateral hearing loss are however born in developing countries like South Africa where services are scarce and awareness poor. Despite its comparatively welldeveloped economic and reasonably developed health care infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa, limited information on infant hearing loss and the status of early hearing detection and intervention has been available for South Africa. Recently however, an increasing number of initiatives and reports have highlighted the extent of infant hearing loss and the status of identification and intervention services
offered in the country. This report provides a review of the available evidence on infant hearing loss and the status of current early hearing detection and intervention services in South Africa.
Description
Keywords
Infant hearing loss, Early detection, Early intervention, Maternal attitudes, Developing countries, Childhood hearing loss
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
D.W. Swanepoel, et al., Early hearing detection and intervention in South Africa, Int. J. Pediatr. Otorhinolaryngol. (2009), doi:10.1016/j.ijporl.2009.01.007