Regular antibiotics could lead to hearing loss in children — Audiologist

Parents who regularly give their children unprescribed antibiotics could be causing them hearing loss. According to the Lead Audiologist at the Hearing Assessment Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Mrs Jemima Fynn, some antibiotics which are commonly sold on the market could damage sensory cells in the ears leading to permanent hearing loss.

In an interview with The Mirror in Accra last Wednesday, she explained that while some newborns had congenital hearing loss, (hearing loss present at birth due to some factors or hereditary) other factors such as untreated ear infections and medications such as antibiotics could lead to hearing loss.

“Children have a predisposition that when they take medications that are ototoxic (ear poison), it destroys their ears. Antibiotics are popular ototoxic medications and here we easily prescribe antibiotics. Many caregivers also buy antibiotics from pharmacies without any consultation or knowledge of the effects it could have on their children,” she explained.

Aside from antibiotics, she also cited instances, where people bought over-the-counter ear, drops to treat itches or pain in the ear without knowing the cause of the discomfort. Some of these medications, she added, only worsened the situation and in some cases lead to hearing loss.

She mentioned infections such as mumps, measles and meningitis as some possible causes of hearing problems in children and advised parents to seek medical attention immediately after they see signs of these infections.

The audiologist also advised the public, particularly young people, to limit the use of headphones and earbuds as prolonged use of those devices increased a person’s risk of developing hearing loss. The risk of developing hearing loss, she explained, continued to increase as a result of exposure to noise in recreational settings, as well as personal audio devices.

Hearing challenges in children
Mrs Fynn said her unit was currently seeing a lot of children who reported with delayed speech explaining that ,  “for about a year or two now, the number of children we assess here have exceeded that of adults. Some can hear partially but cannot talk. There are also very young children who report with complete hearing loss. Recently, we saw a baby who was referred from a private facility and the initial assessment showed hearing loss in the right ear. We did some follow-up tests and the right ear had moderate to severe hearing loss.

This baby was fortunate because the private facility had the optoacoustic emission equipment used for testing hearing in newborns. They are still in the clinic and will come back for confirmation of the levels we recorded earlier, then we can start the interventions. Once you start the intervention early, the possibility that the child will get closer to the peers is higher than waiting for about two years when the child may have lost so much language acquisition.”

Hearing impairment screening for newborns 
In June, the hospital launched a newborn hearing screening project in collaboration with Med-El, a leading Austria provider of hearing implant systems and Path Medical of Germany. The screening, which is currently being piloted at the facility and two other health centres, is now part of routine screening for newborn babies delivered at the facility.

For Mrs Fynn and her team, this project, although long overdue, would play an important role in reducing the number of cases of hearing loss in children.

In 2020 when she first spoke to this reporter on the importance of a universal newborn hearing screening, she stated that in most instances, caregivers only reported to health facilities when their two or three-year-olds showed signs of delayed speech, by which time the condition might have worsened.

“Usually from one year upwards, infants begin to pick up a few words and sounds from their immediate environment, so parents only become worried when after two years their children are not able to speak as they are expected to.”

“Most of such cases are referred to hearing assessment centres which are only available in tertiary hospitals, and sometimes parents have to travel miles to these centres.

It is a relief to note that about 60 per cent of childhood causes of hearing loss are preventable, only if we put these precautionary measures in place,” she explained.

The audiologist expressed gratitude to their partners for deciding to embark on the project and hoped that it would be extended to other parts of the country.

By: Efia Akese