20,000 School kids benefit from free ear screening

About 80 per cent of school kids and their teachers screened for ear diseases in three Ashanti districts have been found to have excess wax in the ears.

Wax protects the ear by trapping infections and lubricates the ear, but its’ over production presents serious health implications and discomfort – itchy ears, feeling of heaviness in the ear which affects hearing.

Between three and four percent of the over 20,000 pupils and teachers screened also suffered from hearing loss, either in one ear or both and those with severe cases have been referred to the School for the Deaf.

The exercise was carried out in the Kwadaso sub-metropolitan area in Kumasi, the Ejisu-Juaben and Offinso Municipalities, jointly by STARkey Hearing Foundation and Sound Seekers, both NGOs.

Madam Barbara Birago Antwi, Chief Research Assistant at the Audiology Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), who made this known to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), described as worrying, the amount of foreign bodies found in the ears of greater majority of the children.

These included dead ants, sand particles, fragments of pen-tops, erasers and other materials.

She underlined the need to properly educate children to desist from inserting objects into their ears to avoid damaging that vital sensory organ.

Madam Antwi reminded parents to put premium on regular screening of their children for ear diseases and infection.

This must be given utmost attention to prevent hearing impairment, something that could badly affect the academic performance of pupils and students.

She asked that school children with hearing defects be seated in the front row in the classroom.