Nearly sixty per cent cases of hearing loss in children are preventable with early intervention says former Australian cricket sensation Brett Lee emphasising the need to make the new-born screen test mandatory in India. Deafness according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) refers to the complete loss of hearing ability in one or both ears while hearing impairment refers to both complete and partial loss of hearing ability. Nearly 360 million people nearly one-tenth of them children suffer from hearing loss worldwide it says. However nearly 60 per cent of these could have been prevented from an early age