Home industry healthcare The UK's NHS will use a test to save babies from becoming deaf

The UK's NHS will use a test to save babies from becoming deaf

Healthcare

CIO Bulletin
2023-02-09

NHS hospitals of the UK plan to employ a quick test that can help newborns retain their hearing. Common antibiotics can become harmful for certain infants.

Permanent hearing loss results from the medications' destruction to the sensory cells of the ear. The test, which examines the DNA of newborns, can immediately identify individuals who are susceptible.

In the event that a newborn gets a serious bacterial infection, gentamicin is the antibiotic of choice. For the vast majority of people, it is both life-saving and secure. It does have an uncommon side effect, though. A little mutation in the genetic code of about 1,250 newborns in England and Wales enables the antibiotic to bind more potently to the hair cells in their ears, where it becomes poisonous.

Analyzing a sample taken from the inside of the infant's cheek is the new Genedrive kit. It could identify babies who were at risk for hearing loss in 26 minutes, according to tests conducted at two neonatal intensive care units in Manchester and Liverpool, and utilizing it did not cause treatment to be delayed. The test has received provisional approval from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which chooses which medicines and technologies the NHS employs.