06-23-2006
The Southern Indian city of Kochi has introduced newborn hearing screening to help prevent the possibility of slow speech and language development because of a late detection of hearing loss. Kochi is the first city in India to introduce this program.
The screenings are performed at the Kochi Child Care Centre of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics. To date, 25 of the 400 newborns screened were found to have a hearing problem. Seven have been fitted with hearing aids.
The goal is to have a newborn screening program in every district in this region of India.
