Make ear care a reality for all
WORLD Hearing Day is an annual celebration on March 3. This celebration aims to raise awareness of ear and hearing care by stressing its importance to the local communities.
This year's theme from the World Health Organization (WHO) is "Changing mindsets: Let's make ear and hearing care a reality for all".
Association of the Deaf office manager Tuliana Waibuta has reiterated the importance of ear and hearing care for all individuals - hearing and non hearing.
She says the ear is an important organ in the body and therefore its proper care is paramount.
In her line of work, one of the things they do is refer individuals in the deaf community to other means and services such as education and information.
Ear and health care are just as important.
Her message with respect to this annual event is to not delay visiting a health facility for ear and hearing checkups.
This message does not just apply to those who are hearing but to the deaf and hard of hearing as well.
She says if one part of the body becomes sick, the other parts can be affected.
"So, when your ears feel infected, get it checked," she said.
At the association they also advice and refer those who come to their office to the relevant medical clinic or outlet.
With the hopes of easing communication barriers and ensuring a proper check-up has been made, those who are hard of hearing may be accompanied by an interpreter.
In line with this, the WHO through this event wishes to address the issue of breaking barriers and misunderstandings of the hard of hearing community.
Around the same time last year, WHO highlighted the need to make ear and hearing care available. The report stated that in Fiji, with a population of around 900 000 people, five per cent need to access certain level of hearing and ear services.
WHO said many of those here in Fiji are treated by general practitioners (GP) and nurses who are employed at the level of first contact with patients.
Recently in 2017, the Ministry of Health held a training program to further develop general practitioners and nurse practitioners by providing important hearing and ear services.
This training was done in partnership with the WHO Primary Ear and Hearing Care (PEHC) training guide.
Such training would help improve their knowledge when treating patients with ear and hearing problems.
The participants learnt certain procedures of ear and hearing care.
The reports states thar Dr Sailosi Soqo of the Nausori Health Centre in the Rewa Division participated in the PHEC training two years ago in 2022 and shared pleasant sentiments from the experience.
His duty involved providing help and clinical services to patients. Some of these services included inpatient care, outpatient consultation and maintaining medical emergencies.
"Every day, at least 10 people visit our health centre complaining of ear or hearing problems. Even though I have good medical knowledge with over 10 years of experience in providing health services, my knowledge about ear diseases and hearing loss were limited," he said.
"During the training, I learned a lot about ear and hearing care, from ear anatomy and hearing physiology to diagnosis of otitis media and its proper management.
Therefore one can imagine how the economy would be able to benefit from the enhancement of these essential health services.