Such practices include immunization, proper care around pregnancy, avoiding loud noise, and avoiding certain medications. The World Health Organization recommends that young people limit exposure to loud sounds and the use of personal audio players to an hour a day in an effort to limit exposure to noise. Early identification and support are particularly important in children. For many, hearing aids, sign language, cochlear implants and subtitles are useful. Lip reading is another useful skill some develop. Access to hearing aids, however, is limited in many areas of the world.As of 2013 hearing loss affects about 1.1 billion people to some degree. It causes disability in about 466 million people (5% of the global population), and moderate to severe disability in 124 million people. Of those with moderate to severe disability 108 million live in low and middle income countries. Of those with hearing loss, it began during childhood for 65 million. Those who use sign language and are members of Deaf culture may see themselves as having a difference rather than a disability. Many members of Deaf culture oppose attempts to cure deafness and some within this community view cochlear implants with concern as they have the potential to eliminate their culture. The terms hearing impairment or hearing loss are often viewed negatively as emphasizing what people cannot do, although the terms are still regularly used when referring to deafness in medical contexts. Definition
Hearing loss is defined as diminished acuity to sounds which would otherwise be heard normally.
Nonsyndromic deafness occurs when there are no other signs or medical problems associated with the deafness in an individual.Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are reported to cause hearing loss in up to 64% of infants born to alcoholic mothers, from the ototoxic effect on the developing fetus plus malnutrition during pregnancy from the excess alcohol intake. Premature birth can be associated with sensorineural hearing loss because of an increased risk of hypoxia, hyperbilirubinaemia, ototoxic medication and infection as well as noise exposure in the neonatal units. Also, hearing loss in premature babies is often discovered far later than a similar hearing loss would be in a full-term baby because normally babies are given a hearing test within 48 hours of birth, but doctors must wait until the premature baby is medically stable before testing hearing, which can be months after birth. The risk of hearing loss is greatest for those weighing less than 1500 g at birth. Disorders responsible for hearing loss include auditory neuropathy, Down syndrome, Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease variant 1E, autoimmune disease, multiple sclerosis, meningitis, cholesteatoma, otosclerosis, perilymph fistula, Ménières disease, recurring ear infections, strokes, superior semicircular canal dehiscence, Pierre Robin, Treacher-Collins, Usher Syndrome, Pendred Syndrome, and Turner syndrome, syphilis, vestibular schwannoma, and viral infections such as measles, mumps, congenital rubella (also called German measles) syndrome, several varieties of herpes viruses, HIV/AIDS, and West Nile virus. Some medications may reversibly affect hearing. These medications are considered ototoxic.