The maternal and child health section in the Ministry of Health began taking the necessary procedures and precautions for applying the hearing disorder early screening program for newborn babies in the public hospitals of the northern emirates to be circulated in all the private hospitals that follow the medical districts at a later stage.

Amina Al Qubaisi, Head of maternal and child health section and national center for mother and child health in Abu Dhabi emphasized the importance of applying the program which will have a positive impact on the early screening of hearing disorders among newborn babies. Early screening will give doctors the opportunities to avoid problems resulting from hearing impairment and protecting children from hearing disabilities and their consequences such as impairment speech and social communication.

Al Qubaisi emphasized that the program will be included as part of the national early screening program for newborn babies and part of the section’s tasks to broaden its policy and add more diseases that may affect children at early ages; provide treatment and early screening opportunities to protect children from mental disabilities and retardation and reduction of mortality rates among newborn babies in case of discovering the disease at a later stage.

In this regard, the maternal and child health section organized a workshop lately in the Ministry of Health in Dubai that was attended by a number of ENT and audiologists of the ministry, Latifa and Dubai Hospitals.

During the scientific meeting, Dr. Mohamed Magdy Zakaria, Head of ENT section in Um Al Qiwain Hospital, delivered a detailed explanation about the screening protocol, mechanisms of hearing tests, importance of early screening, techniques of screening generally and among children who are more exposed to hearing disorders specifically.

On the sidelines of the scientific meeting, an open discussion was organized between the attendance and representatives of the maternal and child health section who displayed the challenges of the program, the possibility of applying the screening program, logistic needs and training of technical staff on the new screening trends. The attendees agreed on the importance of applying the program between 24-48 hours of the child’s birth and beginning the program in all birth hospitals as well as considering one of them as a referential hospital for more screening tests and procedures.