Hearing screening was performed for 1 million 756 thousand babies

According to the statement made by the Ministry of Health on the occasion of "International Hearing Impaired Week", hearing losses may be congenital or may occur for various reasons such as infections, trauma, loud music and long-term exposure to noise.

While hearing losses can affect a person's education, work and social life in different ways, early recognition of losses that occur especially during infancy and childhood is important in supporting the child's development process.

In this context, hearing screening programs are carried out by the Ministry.

The Newborn Hearing Screening Program aims to evaluate babies' hearing in the period after birth, and the School-Age Children's Hearing Screening Program aims to identify previously undetected or later-emerged hearing problems.

Within the scope of the Newborn Hearing Screening Program (YITP), which has been carried out in Türkiye since 2008, a total of 1 million 756 thousand babies were given hearing screening in the last two years.

As a result of the screening, 24 thousand babies who needed further evaluation were referred to advanced diagnosis centers.

Within the scope of the Hearing Screening Program for School-Age Children (OÇİTP), which was carried out for first grade primary school students in 81 provinces, 2 million 129 thousand children were given hearing screening in the last two years, and 118 thousand children were referred to ENT physicians.

To date, 118 thousand citizens have benefited from the Barrier-Free Health Communication Center (ESIM) application developed by the Ministry in order to support hearing-impaired citizens to access health services more easily and effectively, while 30 thousand calls have been answered in the last two years.

Source: TRT Haber Sağlık RSS (Open Press / Translated Full Text)