Unique Hearing Screening Program extended

1/5/00
Health Minister John Day has announced that from today, babies born at St John of God Health Care Subiaco and Woodside Hospital in East Fremantle will be screened for hearing loss following the Health Department's funding of specialist hearing equipment from overseas.
Mr Day said the two hospitals join King Edward Memorial Hospital in running the Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening (UNHS) program, which was the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
"The program, which will eventually be expanded to Joondalup Health Campus and Osborne Park Hospital, and then phased into other hospitals from 2001, will screen more than 11,000 babies this year," he said.
"Congenital hearing loss is the most common congenital disorder with at least 25 babies being born with severe to profound hearing loss in Western Australia every year.
"Until now, delayed diagnosis of significant hearing impairment has meant children have not been fitted with hearing aids until an average age of two years, resulting in a strong possibility of them facing life with serious learning and social difficulties.
"Recent research has shown that if hearing loss can be detected by the age of three months and intervention started by the age of six months, a significant improvement can be made in a child's language and learning skills.
"Earlier detection also increases a child's chance of inclusion in mainstream schooling."
The UNHS procedure involves an audiologist or clinical staff member conducting a simple 10 to 15-minute test on a baby before discharge from hospital.
A failed test is repeated six weeks later, with a second fail resulting in the baby being referred to a specialist audiologist.
The program is common in Europe and compulsory in some states in America.
Mr Day said It had been trialed at King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women and had included "at risk" screening for newborns at both King Edward Memorial Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children for the last five years.
Although trialed in other Australian states, WA is the first State and the only place in the Southern Hemisphere to implement the program.
It is estimated that about 50 per cent of children with sensori-neural hearing loss had an identified risk factor that could include:

• admission to a neonatal intensive care unit;
• a family history of hearing impairment;
• low birth weight; and -
• perinatal infections like rubella and, a chromosomal abnormality such as Down syndrome.

Mr Day said it was vital that we identify children with hearing problems as early as possible in order to give them the best possible start to life.
Parents of babies who are born in hospitals not covered by the UNHS program will be able to seek screening in the private sector.

Media contact: Carole Cowling 9213 6600