Deafness: Professor Alpha Oumar Diallo explains the causes of the disease

According to a WHO projection, nearly 2.5 billion people will suffer from hearing loss in 2050. By then, 1.5 billion people will suffer from this disease worldwide.

Deafness is the reduction or loss of hearing function, that is to say the progressive or permanent reduction of a person's ability to hear those around them. It can be mild, medium, severe or profound depending on the degrees of hearing loss. According to Professor Ag. Alpha Oumar Diallo, head of the ENT department at the Ignace Deen University Hospital in Conakry, mild deafness is when the reduction in hearing varies between 20 and 40 decibels, it is average when it is between 40 and 70, from 70 to 90 severe beyond 90 profound decibels, at this stage the person no longer hears.

In children, it affects the ability to learn to speak if it is not detected and treated very early. It also leads to a disability sometimes leading to repercussions on life, particularly isolation or stigmatization. There are several causes of deafness or hearing loss; they can appear before birth, after birth, from childhood to adolescence and throughout life. Causes before birth are caused by genetic factors, intrauterine infections, asphyxia at birth, infectious diseases in childhood, skull trauma, and tumors that can arise during life.

“There are genetic malformations, diseases when the child is in the mother's womb, infectious diseases such as meningitis and other infections after birth, and causes which appear when the child is older, notably head trauma, there are benign tumors such as acoustic neuroma which is located in the inner ear which greatly affects the auditory nerve and the excessive use of anything that generates noise, particularly headphones, can gradually lead to deafness.", explains Professor Ag. Alpha Oumar Diallo, head of the ENT department at the Ignace Deen University Hospital in Conakry.

Several factors enter into the prevention of congenital deafness, it begins before marriage. “Consanguineous marriages must be avoided, they promote certain genetic diseases. Avoid smoking and drinking during pregnancy, avoid trauma, respect the necessary prenatal consultation periods, it allows you to quickly detect if there are any anomalies», advises Professor Ag. Alpha Oumar Diallo.

Adopting a number of public or individual health measures can sufficiently help prevent deafness.  “Wearing a helmet for motorcyclists, wearing a seat belt for motorists, avoiding cleaning your ears with cotton buds or bird feathers, avoiding working your ears all the time especially when listening to music through headphones, wearing protective gear for those who work in industries that generate enough noise. Noises to a certain degree are decibels which can cause noise pollution and later deafness”, specifiesthe head of the ENT department at the CHU Ignace Deen.

The treatment of deafness begins with preventive measures, then curative through medicinal and surgical means, in addition to the use of hearing aids such as hearing aids or cochlear implantation which improves the perception of sounds, noises or words. According to Professor Ag. Alpha Oumar Diallo, with the significant evolution of modern medicine, 80 to 90% of deafness is curable if detected very early.

Ibrahima Sory BAH