WHO calls for action to reduce hearing loss in Africa

The report, released at the African Hearing Impairment Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, said hearing loss already costs the continent $27 million a year, with far-reaching impacts on lives and economies.

WHO warns that widespread hearing loss disproportionately affects the poor and vulnerable and that without urgent intervention, hearing loss will continue to escalate, further widening existing inequalities in access to health services.

Huge impact on children

WHO says hearing loss has profound effects on children, including delays in language development, increasing the risk of poor educational outcomes and limited future career prospects.

At the same time, adults with untreated hearing loss often face isolation, loneliness, and an increased risk of depression and dementia.

The report details a number of factors contributing to the surge in hearing loss in the WHO African Region, which covers 47 countries, chief among which is a severe shortage of otolaryngologists and hearing care specialists, and an uneven distribution of the existing workforce, which is mainly concentrated in urban areas.

Shortage of professionals

The report noted that more than 56% of African countries have only one ENT specialist per million people, while in Europe the ratio is around 50 specialists per million people.

Meanwhile, more than three-quarters of countries have less than one audiologist and one speech and language therapist per million people.

Although 33 million Africans could benefit from hearing aids, only about 10% have access to them due to a lack of funding for otolaryngology and hearing care and its high cost.

Lack of newborn screening

The report states that up to 75% of hearing loss in children in low- and middle-income countries is due to preventable causes such as infections, common ear diseases and birth complications. However, most countries do not routinely screen newborns for hearing loss.

Even in countries where early childhood health programmes exist, relevant interventions are not integrated into school and workplace health programmes or healthy ageing programmes.

This challenge is further exacerbated by the lack of national policies and plans to strengthen the provision of early childhood health services. In addition, 35% of countries have no budget allocated for early childhood ear and hearing care activities, meaning that patients must bear the full cost of treatment and care.