GENEVA, March 2, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – One in four of the world’s population
will suffer from hearing problems by 2050, the World Health Organization
warned Tuesday, calling for extra investment in prevention and treatment.
The first-ever global report on hearing said that the causes of many of
the problems — such as infections, diseases, birth defects, noise exposure
and lifestyle choices — could be prevented. The report proposed a package of
measures, which it calculated would cost $1.33 per person per year.
Against that, it set the figure of nearly a trillion US dollars lost every
year because the issue was not being properly addressed.
“Failure to act will be costly in terms of the health and well-being of
those affected, and the financial losses arising from their exclusion from
communication, education and employment,” said the report.
One in five people worldwide have hearing problems currently, it said.
But the report warned: “The number of people with hearing loss may
increase more than 1.5-fold during the next three decades” to 2.5 billion
people — up from 1.6 billion in 2019.
Of the 2.5 billion, 700 million would in 2050 have a serious enough
condition to require some kind of treatment, it added — up from 430 million
in 2019.
Much of the expected rise is due to demographic and population trends, it
added.
– Poor access to treatment –
A major contributor to hearing problems is a lack of access to care, which
is particularly striking in low-income countries where there are far fewer
professionals available to treat them.
Since nearly 80 percent of people with hearing loss live in such
countries, most are not getting the help they need.
Even in richer countries with better facilities, access to care is often
uneven, said the report.
And a lack of accurate information and the stigma surrounding ear disease
and hearing loss also prevents people getting the care they need.
“Even among health-care providers, knowledge relevant to prevention, early
identification and management of hearing loss and ear diseases is commonly
lacking,” it noted.
The report proposed a package of measures, including public health
initiatives from reducing noise in public spaces to increasing vaccinations
for diseases such as meningitis that can cause hearing loss.
It also recommended systematic screening to identify the problem at key
points in people’s lives.
Among children, it said, hearing loss could be prevented in 60 percent of
cases.
“An estimated one trillion US dollars is lost each year due to our
collective failure to adequately address hearing loss,” WHO director-general
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the report.
“While the financial burden is enormous, what cannot be quantified is the
distress caused by the loss of communication, education and social
interaction that accompanies unaddressed hearing loss.”