Breakthrough in infant hearing tests

FUDAN University says its scientists have worked out a new method of detecting congenital hearing handicaps, which could greatly reduce the country's deaf-and-mute population.

Meanwhile, the first artificial cochlea made in China, invented by doctors at Fudan's affiliated hospital, had gone into production at half the cost of foreign products.

Liang Hong, associate dean with Fudan's social development and public policy school, found that traditional tests for congenital hearing problems accurately were not good enough and they had been looking for a new method since 2002.

Years of research resulted in the discovery of a method to detect infants' reaction to sounds.

"Once diagnosed with inherited hearing problems, infants will be implanted with hearing facilities such as artificial cochlea immediately," Liang said. "The earlier the treatment, the better the result. Treated children can even listen and speak like their peers."

China has a population of more than 20 million deaf-and-mute people and there are 30,000 infants born with a congenital hearing defect each year.

The new method has been adopted by Shanghai Health Bureau.

Fudan officials said that the invention had achieved an annual output of 2,000 sets.