Mysore/Mysuru: The 3rd of March every year is celebrated worldwide as World Hearing Day. The theme for the year 2020 is “Hearing for life. Don’t let hearing loss limit you’! This has been designed with the aim of spreading awareness about the effects of deafness and the various means to overcome this disability. 

Hearing impairment can occur at any age group both in children as well as adults. Childhood hearing impairment could be due to several reasons. Every year, thousands of children are born deaf. If undetected , this can result in impairment in speech 

Hence, it is of utmost importance that congenital (present from birth) hearing loss is diagnosed at the earliest and corrected before the age of two years for proper development of the child. 

JSS Hospital in city has implemented Universal Newborn Screening Programme that screens every child born for hearing loss within 48 hours of birth. This helps to screen children who could possibly be suffering from deafness and then they can be subjected to further tests such that every child born deaf can be identified at the earliest and can be streamlined for treatment. 

To commemorate World Hearing Day, the ENT Department of JSS Hospital has organised the following activities:  

1. Drawing competition for School children on Mar.1 based on the theme of hearing loss at the 1st Floor, JSS Institute of Speech and Hearing, Agrahara.

2. Public awareness and evaluation of hearing loss programme on Mar.3 at JSS Hospital premises.

 3. School health programme to educate and raise awareness among school going children and their parents about the need to detect and cure hearing loss.

 4. Radio talk on the topic of childhood hearing impairment and the need to correct it. 

For details and registration, contact Ph: 0821 2335153 (10 am to 4 pm) or Mob: 98457-68630 (9 am to 6 pm), according to a press release.