One in every four people in Delhi need medical attention to avoid permanent deafness

Children and women are most likely to ignore critical ear infections, which can lead to permanent deafness

A data analysis of over one lakh people living in slum clusters of Delhi, under the Shruti programme, reveals that one in four people of Delhi’s underserved population is in an urgent need of medical attention to avoid permanent deafness. Under Shruti programme, 40,000 people were screened for ear infections in Mustafabad, Trilokpuri and Jehangirpuri over a period of two years.

More than 30,000 people in Delhi were referred to ear surgeons for different levels of ear care including medical management, surgical intervention and hearing aid fitting. It was also found that children and women ignore ear infections, which lead to serious medical conditions. Around 35,000 children have been screened for ear infections under the initiative so far.

Medtronic launched Shruti programme in collaboration with Dr Shroff Charitable Eye Hospital in Delhi. Launched in 2013, Shruti aims to create and manage a self-sustaining ecosystem for awareness, diagnosis and treatment of underserved patients, specifically children, suffering from ear infections.

The initiative addresses key barriers of affordability, lack of proper diagnosis and timely treatment to prevent partial or complete deafness.

Speaking on the milestone of Shruti, Milind Shah, Vice-President, South Asia and Managing Director, India Medtronic said, “Screening over 100,000 people is an important milestone for Shruti. During the examinations it was found that one out of every three people was in need of immediate medical attention. In the absence of the Shruti programme most of those screened would have never visited an ENT specialist or would not have even realised that they were suffering from a medical condition. I feel happy and proud to say that Shruti has saved these people from permanent hearing disability. However, there is still more that needs to be done and the Shruti team will cross many new milestones.”

Under this programme, trained community health workers travel door-to-door within the targeted areas to conduct free ear screenings. The health workers have practical experience of working closely with ENT surgeons and paramedical teams coupled with the use of the Shruti kit. During this screening opportunity, health workers educate the people on good ear care habits, which can help them to avoid preventable hearing loss. Residents are screened within their community via a specially designed hand held screening device that links the community screeners to Shruti staff and an ENT surgeon via a telemedicine application that transmits images of the patient’s middle ear.