500 hearing impaired children to get cochlear implant: Health Minister K Sudhakar
Bengaluru (PTI): As many as 500 children who were born with congenital hearing loss will get cochlear implant, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar said on Sunday.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had announced the creation of 'Hearing Impairment Free Karnataka' in the 2022-23 state budget.
In the current financial year, 1,939 children below the age of six years have been identified with hearing impairment, Sudhakar said.
"The Karnataka government will gift to 500 children below the age of six who were born with congenital hearing loss by providing them with free Cochlear Implants," the minister said in a statement.
He added that the state health department is working on a mission mode with a slogan 'Health for All' to cover every aspect of health and well-being and a new initiative has been planned to make Karnataka free from hearing impairments.
Special attention has been given to eliminating hearing loss in children under six years of age, Sudhakar further said.
Most of them have suffered from congenital deafness and the main reason for this is the mother's consumption of medicine, viral infection, suffocation and shock during the prenatal period, the minister said.
According to Sudhakar, a cochlear implant is a small electronic device that helps children with severe and profound hearing loss hear sounds. The implant is inserted into the cochlear of the inner ear.
"The processor of the device is placed behind the ear, and the hearing mechanism of the human body that had been dormant starts working again and transmits the audio signals to the brain," the minister explained.
He also said that an honorarium of Rs 250 will be given to each ASHA worker who has helped in identifying such children and have aided in the entire process.
Sudhakar said 20 hospitals including KC General Hospital, Indira Gandhi Children's Institute, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Bangalore Medical College BMCRI, KIMS Hubli have been identified to perform the procedure as they are well equipped for surgery.
Beneficiaries are identified by audiology teams working under National Programme for the Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD) in collaboration with Mobile Health Teams under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK).
The identified eligible children will be sent to taluk and district-level hospitals for further evaluation and management, the minister said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
