Egypt
Egypt
- Percent of children screened for hearing loss:
- Incidence of permanent hearing loss among newborns:
Current Status of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention for Children
In Egypt, there is a relatively high prevalence of consanguineous marriage together with poor antenatal care and lack of public awareness about the importance of hearing screening. Therefore, despite the presence of reliable screening methods (TEOAEs, ABR) and effective methods of management, UNHS programs are still not available. On the other hand, targeted neonatal hearing screening (TNHS) or risk-based hearing screening of neonates with risk factors for hearing loss is considered a compromise between no screening at all and UNHS. Still, there is no national program for early detection and intervention of hearing impairment but some steps have been taken to promote a national hearing screening program. A field study on screening for hearing impairment in 1500 neonates was conducted29 taking the advantage of the implemented metabolic newborn screening for hypothyroidism and the feasibility of providing hearing aids by health insurance to all hearing impaired infants and children. Results have shown great opportunity to implement newborn hearing screening. There was a significant high rate of hearing impairment (9 for 1000 newborns). Also, the Primary Health care Centers [PHCs], with some modifications, can be efficient to provide newborn hearing screening. However, the great challenge was the very limited resources available to provide diagnostic hearing services within the ministry of health hospitals. Since then, implementing and expanding hearing screening services are going in phases and hand in hand with the establishment of audiological services for each sector and governorate together with strengthening of the link to health insurance services to provide the amplification devices. Covering all governorates and implementing comprehensive national newborn hearing screening would be the ultimate target and is expected to become an attainable realistic goal aiming at providing rehabilitation services at optimal time. National newborn hearing screening remained of high priority to achieve equality in the quality of health and life.
Demographics
- Population: 86,895,099 (July 2014 est.)
- Number of Annual Births (2012 est): 2,261,409
- Birth rate: 23.35 births/1,000 population (2014 est.)
- Percent of GDP spent on health care (2011): 4.9% of GDP (2011)
- Percent of Health Care expenditures spent by government: 7.3% (2006)
- Physician density: 2.83 physicians/1,000 population (2009)
- Percent of newborns attended by skilled providers: 79%
- Infant Mortality: 22.41 deaths/1,000 live births
- Literacy (age 15 and over can read and write): 73.9%
- Percent of children screened for hearing loss:
- Incidence of permanent hearing loss among newborns:
Publications about EHDI Programs in Egypt
- Safaa S. Imam, Rania A. El-Farrash, Hesham M. Taha, and Helbees E. Bishoy, “Targeted versus Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening in a Single Egyptian Center,” ISRN Pediatrics, vol. 2013, Article ID 574937, 6 pages, 2013. doi:10.1155/2013/574937
- Kotby MN, Tawfik S, Aziz A, Taha H. Public health impact of hearing impairment and disability. Folia Phoniatr Logop. 2008;60(2):58-63. doi: 10.1159/000114646.
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