The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of International Hearing Center Nigeria, Irene Okeke-Igbokwe has urged all Nigerians to have regular hearing checks to reduce the increasing number of hearing loss in the country. Irene Okeke-Igbokwe is a fellow of the American Academy of Audiology (FAAA), Fellow Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA), Board Certified Audiologist by American Board of Audiology (ABA), and member of International Hearing Society (IHS). She is also presently the President of the Nigerian Audiology Association (NAA).
Okeke-Igbokwe, former Director Nigerian Army Audiological Centre made the call recently, according to a statement while addressing participants receiving free hearing screening and free hearing health counselling in IHC’S centres across Nigeria as part of activities marking World Hearing Day 2021.
The IHC boss urged all Nigerians irrespective of their ages to pay special attention to their hearing status by undergoing hearing screening annually. This she said, will reduce the increasing number of Nigerians suffering from all levels of hearing loss.
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Although there are no widely acceptable studies or data on the number of people with hearing loss in Nigeria, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimation is that 1.5 billion people in the world live with some degree of hearing loss, out of which over 5% of the world’s population or 430 million people require rehabilitation to address their ‘disabling’ hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children). It also projected that by 2050, 2.5 billion people worldwide or one in four people will be living with some degree of hearing loss.
Nearly 80% of people with disabling hearing loss live in low and middle-income countries. Nigeria with the largest population in Africa falls into the category of low and middle-income countries. According to OkekeIgbokwe, “IHC as a hearing health care provider for over 25 years in Nigeria is supporting World Hearing Day 2021 by providing free hearing screening, free hearing aid checks all through the month of March 2021.
