A study of deafness in West Africa.

Some 800 profoundly deaf children from 4 Yoruba states in Nigeria were assessed and examined in an attempt to identify the causes of deafness in this part of West Africa. It was found that measles, meningitis and rubella were the three major preventible diseases causing deafness. Genetic abnormalities, in contradistinction to other tropical countries, do not seem to be very important and chronic ear infections show different manifestations in this area to the situation reported in East Africa. The overwhelming problems that face the deaf and any possible extension of services for the deaf are detailed. In view of these it seems that the most cost-effective way of helping the deaf in Nigeria is by immunizing the population against those infectious diseases that cause the disability. This policy would accord with the recent initiatives by the United Nations: the International Year of the Child (I.Y.C.) and the International Year of the Disabled Person (I.Y.D.P.) as well as The Expanded Programme of Immunization (E.P.I.) of the World Health Organization.