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GENEVA – One in four people in the world’s population will suffer from hearing problems by 2050, the World Health Organization warned on Tuesday, calling for additional investment in prevention and treatment.
The first world report on hearing said that the causes of many of the problems, such as infections, diseases, birth defects, noise exposure and lifestyles, could be prevented.
The report proposed a package of measures, which it calculated would cost $ 1.33 per person per year.
Against that, he set the figure of almost a trillion US dollars lost each year because the problem was not being adequately addressed.
“Failure to act will be costly in terms of the health and well-being of those affected, and the financial losses that arise from their exclusion from communication, education and employment,” the report said.
One in five people worldwide is hard of hearing today, he said.
But the report warned: “The number of people with hearing loss may increase more than 1.5 times over the next three decades” to 2.5 billion people, up from 1.6 billion in 2019.
Of the 2.5 billion, 700 million in 2050 would have a condition serious enough to require some kind of treatment, he added, up from 430 million in 2019.
Much of the expected increase is due to demographic and population trends, he added.
Poor access to treatment
A major contributing factor to hearing problems is lack of access to care, which is particularly striking in low-income countries where far fewer professionals are available to treat them.
Since almost 80 percent of people with hearing loss live in these countries, most do not receive the help they need.
Even in richer countries with better facilities, access to care is often uneven, according to the report.
And the lack of accurate information and the stigma surrounding ear disease and hearing loss also prevent people from receiving the care they need.
“Even among healthcare providers, knowledge relevant to the prevention, early identification, and management of hearing loss and ear disease is commonly lacking,” he noted.
The report proposed a package of measures, including public health initiatives ranging from reducing noise in public spaces to increasing vaccines for diseases like meningitis that can cause hearing loss.
He also recommended screening to identify the problem at key points in people’s lives.
Among children, he said, hearing loss could be prevented in 60 percent of cases.
“An estimated US $ 1 trillion is lost each year due to our collective inability 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 untreated hearing loss.”
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