World Hearing Day is an annual advocacy event held on 3 March which aims to raise awareness and promote ear and hearing care across the world. This year, World Hearing Day focuses on the economic impact of hearing loss with the theme: “Action for hearing loss: make a sound investment”.
Unaddressed hearing loss poses a high cost for the economy globally. Cost-effective strategies to address hearing loss include prevention, primary health care interventions, early detection and intervention. Half of all hearing loss can be avoided through prevention. Primary health care interventions including immunizing children against childhood diseases such as measles, meningitis, rubella and mumps, and immunizing adolescent girls and women of reproductive age against rubella, will greatly reduce the risk of congenital hearing loss among babies. Identifying hearing loss early through screening of newborns, school children and adults above 50 years, and identifying and treating ear infections quickly are further low-cost actions.