Over 200 Cubans benefit from bionic ears

Dr. Eduardo Morales, the national coordinator of Cuba's cochlear implant program, was speaking to Xinhua to introduce the country's advances in the field.

Since its launch in 2005, the program has helped 233 patients diagnosed with profound deafness who were not responding to conventional treatment, including more than 30 deafblind people, 60 visually-impaired people and others with different disabilities, said Morales. The treatment is completely free.

The program has traditionally focused on minors and those under the age of 18. But the local health authorities are now working to reach adults in the country.

The program has also planned to expand the service to other countries as part of the government's South-South cooperation policy and regional integration accords.

The first patient who received the bionic ear implant in Cuba was Rosa Amelia Moya, a deafblind one who once worked in the reading room for blind children at a small public library in the town of Bejucal, about 19 km south of Havana. Now retired, Moya continues enjoying hearing.

Cochlear implants are high-tech medical devices composed of a transducer that turns acoustic signals into electronic signals which can stimulate the auditory nerve. They revert loss of hearing caused by the destruction of cochlear cells by directly stimulating the ganglion cells with electronic signals that can transmit the encoded information to the brain. They can be implanted inside or outside the skull.

Though cash-strapped, Cuba has tried to help people overcome their disabilities so that they can be fully integrated into the society by working in areas like education.