At the tea room of IHK, surgeons Prof. Dr. Ahmed Mehanna, a Professor of Ontology and Cochlear Implant at Alexandria University in Egypt and Dr. Louis Okema from Gulu University prepared for surgery. Double-checking the charts of their patient, ensuring all is in order and ready for the procedure yet to take place. The surgeons were part of the team brought together by Kampala Audiology and Speech Centre to carry out a cochlear implant surgery on a patient, a 3-year-old child. 

This procedure is carried out when a patient has complete hearing loss and cannot be treated by any medication or helped by the use of hearing aids. The cochlear implant surgery was successful and the patient is recovering well. 

When Kampala Audiology and Speech Centre started operation in 2004, the vision was to provide the people of Uganda and the East African region access to quality hearing care and speech therapy.

Many people living with hearing challenges that ranged from partial to complete hearing loss did not know where to goin order to receive help in this regard. Many visited general hospitals, only to be referred to go abroad further help. This was very costly and only a few were able to afford these services. 

The cochlear implant surgery held yesterday, 3^rd December 2021 marked the 3^rd successful cochlear implant surgery carried out by Kampala Audiology and Speech Centre in partnership with MEDeL and IHK this year. This alone is evidence that the standard of health service delivery and patient care in Uganda has improved, and shines a beacon of hope for those that are afflicted with hearing impairment. 

The procedure was carried out on a day that the rest of the world commemorates International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Hearing loss (deafness) is considered a disability. According to the World Health Organization, 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 is estimated that by 2050 over 700 million people – or one in every ten people – will have disabling hearing loss.

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