Mangaluru : Minister for Health and Family Welfare U T Khader said the State government would make infant hearing screening mandatory in all mother and child hospitals (MCH) and instruments would be provided by the government.

Even private hospital should follow this to make Karnataka, hearing problem-free State.

He was speaking here on Saturday in the presence of nine beneficiary kids of cochlear implant surgery conducted under Assistance to Disabled Persons (ADIP) scheme of the Centre to solve hearing disability, with the assistance of State government.

He said during the camp, organised in association with medical colleges and Lions Club International at Natekal four months ago, 13 children below-five year age were selected for surgery. As parents of two kids were not ready for surgery and one child didn’t had proper brain development, cochlear implant surgery was conducted on 10 kids at Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health Hospital in Bengaluru in March, he said.

For poor families, the surgery which normally costs Rs 6 to 8 lakh was done in just Rs 10,000. Under the scheme, the Centre gives Rs 3 lakh and the State Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh from CM’s fund. The parents of the kid have to spend around 10 per cent of the amount.

Meanwhile, he said hearing aids would be distributed to 120 beneficiaries who were identified in the camp on July 26.

Awareness is being created through ASHA workers about treating hearing disabilities at the earliest. If children need hearing aids, it would be provided. If they need surgery, a list of such children would be maintained and benefit will provided accordingly. The Minister said that the department would provide surgery facility in the Wenlock Hospital itself, which has a speech therapy facility.

All India Institute of Speech and Hearing Executive Member Dr J M Hans said till date 40 cochlear implant surgeries have been conducted in Karnataka using PM and CM fund. The surgery can be done on 8-month-old baby to 7-year-old kid. Now, it has become around 30 minute process. The surgery is a permanent treatment for the disability, he said.

Dr Vasanthi, who has performed around 150 successful cochlear implant surgeries, said CT scan, MRI scan and Bera (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Responses) tests are done before surgery to test hearing abilities of the child.

Proper Auditory Verbal Therapy should follow the surgery and family commitment should be there. The child should be sent to mainstream schools. Awareness should be created among people to treat hearing problems among kids before five years.

The minister said the State will replace older ‘108’ ambulances with 120 new ambulances in the month of August. Meanwhile, he came down heavily against MLC Srinivas Poojary and said: “when Assembly sessions were on, if his demands on regularisation of nurses can be solved in a legal way he could have asked within the Assembly and not in front of my office”.

“The government has received report on noodles and the lead content is in permissible level. However, there is no report on Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). Once the report comes, the government will take its own stand,” he added. DHO Dr Ramakrishna Rao, District Surgeon Dr H R Rajeshwari Devi were present among others.