NEWS

Karnataka Health Department has relaunched its cochlear implant programme that had come to a standstill since 2018-2019.

COCHLEAR IMPLANT SCHEME

• Under the original programme titled “Shravanadosha Mukta Karnataka” (Deafness Free Karnataka) started in 2016-2017, a hundred cochlear implant surgeries had been done for children under the age of six years
• However, the programme came to a halt in 2018 due to lack of funds
• Recently , under the programme, a three-year-old male child from Ramanagaram underwent the surgery at the State-run K C General Hospital
• State was using funds from the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), a centrally-funded scheme, for the implants
• Programme was implemented through the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST). However, the State stopped receiving funds for this scheme in 2018 on the grounds of duplication of schemes

COCHLEAR IMPLANT

• WHAT – Implanted electronic hearing device, designed to produce useful hearing sensations to a person with severe to profound nerve deafness by electrically stimulating nerves inside the inner ear.

These implants usually consist of 2 main components:

• The externally worn microphone, sound processor and transmitter system.
• The implanted receiver and electrode system, which contains the electronic circuits that receive signals from the external system and send electrical currents to the inner ear.