Childhood deafness in Zimbabwe.

An investigation involving 885 children in five institutions for the deaf in Zimbabwe was conducted with a view to determining the cause of hearing loss. The cause of deafness in 40% of cases was an infectious or infective disorder, while in 43% the basic defect was unknown. There was a seemingly high prevalence of autosomal recessively inherited undifferentiated deafness among children from the Shona tribe. Conversely, an apparent underrepresentation of genetic syndromic disorders was evident in both major tribal groups. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.