Hearing Impairment

Approximately 466 million or 5 percent of people worldwide have a disabling hearing impairment, 34 million of which are children. A disabling loss of hearing is classified as any loss greater than 40 dB from the standard level of hearing in a healthy adult ear. For children, it is classified as any loss greater than 30 dB from the level of hearing in a healthy child’s ear.¹ In developing nations, children and adults with hearing loss face barriers in accessing education or becoming part of the workforce.² Hearing loss can be genetically acquired or be caused by complications during birth, disease, chronic ear infections, certain medications, overexposure to loud noise or aging. ³ Diseases that can cause hearing loss include meningitis, measles, mumps, rubella and syphilis.⁴ Certain drugs used to treat malaria, and medications used to prevent neonatal infections, can also cause hearing impairments.⁵