Cuba Shows Positive Results on World Hearing Day

Havana, Mar 4 .- Cuba is celebrating the World Hearing Day on Sunday with positive results in prevention and the cochlear implant program, a medical procedure from which the 500th patient benefited recently.

 

After more than two decades of the project, the latest surgery to place the device was performed at the Borras-Marfan Children’s Hospital in Havana on February 25, coinciding with the international day of the introduction of that high-tech product.

This technique, which has benefited more than 325,000 people suffering from deep bilateral sensorineural hearing loss worldwide, reports in Cuba one of the lowest complication rates in the world, even though the introduction of advanced and miniaturized implants requires high-standard surgeries with non-invasive procedures.

Cuba has implemented a national program for the diagnosis, study and care of those people who benefited from cochlear implants, which includes the replacement of the device every six years and its maintenance.

Cuban researchers are currently developing several studies on brain plasticity in recovering areas related to hearing after placing an implant, mainly in children of very young ages, and great progress has been made, whose results are exhibited today on the occasion of the World Hearing Day, which was proposed at the 1st International Conference on Prevention and Rehabilitation of Hearing, held in Beijing, China, in 2007.

In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) drew attention to the expected increase in the number of people with hearing loss, under the slogan ‘Listen to the future.’

In 2019, the institution emphasizes the importance of early identification and intervention for hearing loss, with the theme ‘Check your hearing.’ (Prensa Latina)