Widespread ear infections among Aboriginal infants is creating "catastrophic" learning and development problems that have been largely ignored for 50 years, a surgical leader, Chris Perry, said.
More than 90 per cent of Aboriginal children suffered from ear infections, which often caused hearing problems leading to illiteracy, truancy and unemployment and in turn triggered drug abuse and violence, Dr Perry said.
Dr Perry, who is the chairman of the Queensland branch of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, said the incidence of ear infections among Aboriginal children was the worst in the world.
Despite this, he said, there had been no commitment of sufficient long-term funding to combat the problem - which he said was "widespread, catastrophic socially and an indication of poverty".
The failure to deal with the problem, which could be easily fixed, was "a national shame", Dr Perry said, urging Labor, if it won federal government, to commit to combating the disease.
"What we have found … is that close to 100 per cent of Aboriginal children have ear infections by three months of age and in Caucasian children you almost never see them starting so young."
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