Hearing screening was performed for 2 million 129 thousand children

The Ministry of Health made a written statement on the occasion of '21-27 September International Hearing Impaired Week'.

In the statement, it was emphasized that hearing is an important sense for the individual to communicate with his environment, to continue his speech and language development, and to participate in education and social life. "Hearing losses may be congenital or may occur due to reasons such as infections, traumas, loud music and long-term noise exposure, and may affect education, work and social life in different ways.

Early recognition of hearing loss that occurs during childhood and infancy is important in supporting the child's development process. For this reason, hearing screening programs are carried out by our Ministry. "The Newborn Hearing Screening Program (YITP) aims to evaluate babies in terms of hearing in the period after birth, and the OÇITP aims to identify hearing problems that were not noticed before or that emerged later."

It was stated that within the scope of YİTP, which has been carried out in Türkiye since 2008, a total of 1 million 756 thousand babies have been subjected to hearing screening in the last 2 years, and that "24 thousand babies who needed further evaluation as a result of the screening were referred to advanced diagnosis centers. Within the scope of OÇİTP, which is carried out for 1st grade primary school students in 81 provinces, 2 million 129 thousand children were given hearing screening in the last 2 years, and 118 thousand children were referred to ear, nose and throat physicians."

Pointing out that 118 thousand people have benefited from the Barrier-Free Health Communication Center (ESIM) application developed by the Ministry to support hearing-impaired citizens to access health services more easily and effectively, and 30 thousand calls have been answered in the last 2 years, "24/7 service is provided by professional sign language translators and healthcare personnel through the ESIM mobile application, which can be downloaded to smartphones free of charge. Emergency health services can be accessed through the application; appointments from hospitals are made through the Central Physician Appointment System (MHRS) It was said that it can be obtained.

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