A Bradford medical couple are taking their skills to Bangladesh to tackle deafness.
Ear, nose and throat surgeon Antony Tucker and his wife Dr Sheila Webb are going to the developing country for two weeks of surgery and training.
Travelling as part of a team of eight, the couple hope to restore hearing and provide speech therapy to adults and children with hearing problems.
Mr Tucker, of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Chronic ear infections are common in Bangladesh and this results in a high toll of deafness.
"There are three to four million deaf people in the country with many receiving no treatment or support. We will be carrying out much the same operations as we do here."
Two audiologists, two speech therapists, a theatre sister and a specialist registrar will accompany the couple on the trip in October.
They will all offer training in techniques, modern hygiene methods and help to set up speech therapy services.
Dr Webb, director of public health at Airedale Primary Care Trust, who first visited Bangladesh five years ago, said: "Nothing could have prepared me for my first visit. The levels of poverty hit you as soon as you walk out of the airport and see people trying to eke a living out of the very earth they walk on."
Dr Webb compared the country's public health and hygiene to Victorian Britain.
She said: "Death rates are high, particularly in children. There is a basic lack of hospitals and what they do have are inadequately equipped, and nursing is non-existent."
As part of the trip, funded by the British Bangladeshi Ear Society, Dr Webb will work closely with a voluntary organisation to improve primary health care in the slums in Dhaka. Dr Webb helped set up the Dig Deep for Bangladesh charity following her first visit. To donate, e-mail sheila@digdeep.org
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