Bengaluru: Health Minister Dr. K. Sudhakar on Sunday November 27 said that over 500 children who were born with congenital hearing loss will get cochlear implants.
Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai announced the implementation of ‘Hearing Impairment Free Karnataka in the state budget for 2022–2023.
“As many as 1,939 children under the age of six have been identified with hearing impairment in the current financial year,” said the Minister.
He said in a statement that the Karnataka Government will gift to 500 children under the age of six who were born with congenital hearing loss by giving them with free Cochlear Implants.
To address every aspect of health and wellbeing, the State Health Department is working on a mission with the slogan ‘Health for All,’ and a new programme has been planned to free Karnataka of hearing impairments, he added.
Sudhakar said that special attention has been put on eliminating hearing loss in children under the age of six.
He further said that majority of them had congenital deafness, which was mainly brought on by the mother’s medicine use, viral infection, suffocation, and shock during the prenatal period.
”The processor of the device is placed behind the ear, and the hearing mechanism of the human body that had been dormant starts working again and transmits the audio signals to the brain,” the Minister explained.
He added that each ASHA worker who assisted in identifying such children and in the process as a whole will receive an honorarium of Rs. 250.
Over 20 hospitals have been chosen to perform the surgery because they are well-equipped for surgery, including Indira Gandhi Children’s Institute, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, KC General Hospital, Bangalore Medical College – BMCRI, and KIMS Hubli.
The National Programme for the Prevention and Control of Deafness’s (NPPCD ) teams collaborate with the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram’s (RBSK) mobile health teams to identify beneficiaries.
