Aetiology of deafness among children at the Buguruni School for the Deaf in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

To identify the causes of deafness, 354 pupils attending the Buguruni School for the Deaf in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were studied. Of these children 205 were boys and 149 were girls, a sex ratio of 1.4:1. The onset of deafness was congenital in 36 (10.2%) and acquired in 318 (89.8%). Among the children with acquired deafness, the cause was unknown in 77 (24.2%); meningitis in 76 (23.9%), ototoxicity in 66 (20.8%), mumps in 53 (16.7%) febrile convulsions in five (1.5%), otitis media in 28 (8.8%) and measles in 13 (4.1%). Among the children with congenital deafness, only ten (27.8%) were identified before the age of 2 years. The findings indicate that most (75.8%) of the causes of acquired deafness are preventable through immunisation, early diagnosis and proper treatment of ear infections and avoidance of prescription of ototoxic drugs. This emphasizes the need for programmes aimed at improving the health services at primary levels of health care which will in turn prevent deafness.