BUJUMBURA March 3rd (ABP) – The office of the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS has issued this March 3, 2023, a press release relating to the celebration of World Hearing Day 2023, under the theme: “Ear and hearing care for all. Let’s make it a reality”.
According to the press release, the celebration of that Day is an opportunity to raise public awareness of the prevention of deafness and hearing loss and to promote hearing care. For this year 2023, the day is celebrated by highlighting the importance of integrating ear and hearing care into primary care services, as an essential part of universal health coverage.
In the said press release, it is stated that more than 60% of ear and hearing problems can be detected and treated at the primary care level. Globally, nearly 2.5 billion people, or one in four people, will experience some degree of hearing loss by 2050, according to the WHO in its first report on hearing published on March 3, 2021.
The WHO has also reported that if nothing is done, at least 700 million of those people will need ear and hearing care and other rehabilitation services.
The office of the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS has indicated that in Burundi, there is little information on the state of hearing health. The data available is collected from the general population and housing census carried out in 2008, which indicates that 8.6% of people with disabilities were deaf.
Deafness represented a proportion of 14.4% for the 0-4 age group against 4.4% for those aged 70 and over (RGPH 2008).
To find durable solutions to the challenges inherent in deafness and hearing health in Burundi, the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, through its national integrated program for the fight against chronic non-communicable diseases, has drawn up an ingenious plan including a hearing health component. This aims to integrate ear and hearing care into primary health care services with the ambition of reducing the prevalence of deafness by 1%.