Bhutan's Health Ministry launches initiative to screen hearing impairments

The initiative was launched with World Hearing Day observed in Paro city recently.

As per the Health Ministry, the initiative is being taken to eradicate avoidable deafness in the country.

The Ministry of Health hopes to complete screening the entire population for hearing impairments within the next four to six months, reports The Bhutan Live.

For those with partial hearing difficulty, the ministry will provide digital hearing devices for free. And for those with major difficulty, cochlear implant surgeries were recently launched at the JDWNRH.

Health minister Dechen Wangmo told the news portal that starting next month, the health ministry will start line listing everybody in all districts.

“So as per the plan we will complete the line listing within one month and after that screening will happen.Then see whether those who require surgical interventions or people who require assistive devices. If they require hearing aid we will provide it for free and do the fitting," the minister said.

Eight students from the Wangsel Institute for the deaf in Paro were provided with digital hearing aids during the recently held programme.