Neonatal hearing screening

Significant hearing impairment is an important & common birth defect that occurs 1 to 3 per 100 live births and 2 to 4 per 100 neonatal intensive Care units1,2,3. South East Asia has the largest number of hearing impairment in the world & houses one third of the worlds hearing impaired population. WHO estimates that every year about 38,000 deaf children are born in this region. In Bangladesh 2600 babies born deaf annually where the population is almost 13,000,000. Unfortunately, for many babies, this disability remains undetected until it is too late to prevent undesirable & often irreversible damage.