Pilot project to check for deafness in newborns to kick off in Maharashtra

• Integrity Education, Delhi
• 18, Jun 2021

• This initiative comes in the backdrop of the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD)
• Deafness can be prevented if Otoacoustic Emissions Test is done at an early stage.

Objectives of the NPPCD

1. To prevent avoidable hearing loss on account of disease or injury.
2. Early identification, diagnosis and treatment of ear problems responsible for hearing loss and deafness.
3. To medically rehabilitate persons of all age groups, suffering with deafness.
4. To develop institutional capacity for ear-care services by providing support for equipment, material and training personnel.

Otoacoustic Emissions Test

• An otoacoustic emission (OAE) is a sound that is generated from within the inner ear (cochlea)
• There are hair cells in the inner ear that respond to sound by vibrating.
• OAEs disappear after the inner ear has been damaged, so OAEs are often used in the laboratory and the clinic as a measure of inner ear health.
• Its existence was first demonstrated experimentally by British physicist David Kemp in 1978