Awareness on children and hearing loss in Taiwan

Wu Chen-Chi, Taipei-based doctor and attending physician at the Department of Otolaryngology at the National Taiwan University Hospital said that parents should be careful about their children watching television at an excessive volume. Another important sign is if parents find they often need to repeat themselves when they talk to their children. The challenge is to know when the child is simply distracted and when the child actually cannot hear properly.

Although some cases of hearing loss are related to noise exposure, some two-thirds are thought to be caused by genetic factors, the article reports. In Taiwan, the Children Charity Association has donated NTD 3 million (over USD 100,000) to the National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital to establish a program to carry out genetic testing in about 200 children with hereditary hearing loss. The aim of the program is to identify the cause of the hearing loss, find appropriate treatment, and reduce the risk of a second child being born with hearing loss.

In 2012, the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare began funding a program for newborn hearing screening for infants under three months of age. To date, more than 3,500 infants with hearing loss have been identified thanks to the program.

Source: Taipei Times