The National Ear Centre, Kaduna on Wednesday said it would begin screening of infants born with ear ailments free of charge in 2020.
The Medical Director of the Centre, Dr Abubakar Mustapha, made this known shortly after he visited Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital where the exercise is expected to begin.
He explained if a particular infant is discovered to have a problem of hearing, his ears will be diagnosed with a view to installing an instrument inside his ear to facilitate his hearing and talking as he/she grows up.
“We are hoping that by next year especially in the first quarter of next year we will commence this programme in Kaduna state God’s willing, and the programme will cover the rural areas of the state,” he said.
According to him, the centre would start up the programme for infants born with hearing defects.
“We are hoping that by next year especially at the first quarters we will commence this programme here in the state God’s willing, and the programme is free of charge,” Mustapha said.
He explained that infants in the rural areas of the state experiencing problem with their hearing organs, would not be excluded in the exercise.
“We are at Barau Dikko Hospital because we want to flag-off a programme that will screen infants that were born with ear ailments as well as to ensure that their organ of hearing is functional and if it is not to take the next line of action.”
“ This is because now we have qualitative equipment on the ground that will assist to determine whether the infants’ organs of hearing is functional or not.”
“We want to commence the exercise at Barau Dikko Hospital before we proceed to other hospitals in the state.
“We want to run the exercise concurrently for six months and it is free of charge so as to see how the result will be,” he added.(NAN)