Tanzania to offer cost-effective implant surgery for deaf children

Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-08 00:51:01|Editor: yan
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DAR ES SALAAM, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania will be the first East African country to offer cost-effective implant surgery for deaf children in public hospitals, the country's Minister for Health Ummy Mwalimu announced on Wednesday.

The cochlear implant surgery will be conducted at the country's leading referral facility Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), enabling the government to save millions of U.S. dollars spent on treating deaf children outside the country.

A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing in both ears.

"Every year the government sets aside 600,000 U.S. dollars to support Tanzanian deaf children to seek the service abroad but from now our children will have to get the services at the hospital by either contributing a little or using their health insurance cover," said Mwalimu.

"This is a milestone achievement in the provision of quality health services for our country and we believe we will develop more experts in the field hence make the service available to almost all referral hospitals countrywide," she said at the launch of the new medical services at the MHN.

Mwalimu mentioned diseases that were leading in sending patients abroad as cancer, heart and kidney and hearing complications.

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