One in four people will have hearing problems by 2050: WHO

One in four of the world's population will suffer from hearing problems by 2050, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday, calling for extra investment in prevention and treatment. The first-ever global report on hearing said that the causes of many of the problems -- such as infections, diseases, birth defects, noise exposure and lifestyle choices -- could be prevented. The report proposed a package of measures, which it calculated would cost $1.33 per person per year. Against that, it set the figure of nearly a trillion US dollars lost every year because the issue was not being properly addressed. A major contributor to hearing problems is a lack of access to care, which is particularly striking in low-income countries where there are far fewer professionals available to treat them.

"Failure to act will be costly in terms of the health and well-being of those affected, and the financial losses arising from their exclusion from communication, education and employment," said the report. One in five people worldwide have hearing problems currently, it said. But the report warned: "The number of people with hearing loss may increase more than 1.5-fold during the next three decades" to 2.5 billion people -- up from 1.6 billion in 2019. Of the 2.5 billion, 700 million would in 2050 have a serious enough condition to require some kind of treatment, it added -- up from 430 million in 2019. Much of the expected rise is due to demographic and population trends, it added.