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The problem of diagnostics of congenital hearing impairment has acquired special importance in the light of new possibilities for the early rehabilitation of the patients presenting with this condition. The implementation of the programs of universal audiological screening into the clinical practice of Russia and many other countries made it possible to significantly reducethe time necessary to confirm congenital impairment of hearing and begin the rehabilitative treatment. The present paper was designed to analyze the international experience with the implementation of the programs of universal audiological screening of the newborn infants as exemplified by such countries as Great Britain, USA, Germany, and Poland. The main indicators of the quality and the efficiency of such programs are considered taking into account the results of the epidemiological studies on the prevalence of congenital hearing impairment. A total of 1.8 mln newborn infants were examined in Russia during 2013. The first stage of screening involved 96.7% of the children, and only 2.9% of them remained uncovered by the examination. As many as 5,659 children were found to present with the congenital loss of hearing,with the prevalence of this condition being 3 per 1.000 newborn infants and the prevalence of deafness 0.6 per 1.000. The principal problem to be resolved for the organization of the management of these patients, both in Russia and other countries, remains the enhancement of the availability of comprehensive diagnostic examination and the timelyreferral of the patients to such examination (if appropriate based on the results of the screening). The successful solution of this problem requires personalized recording of the screening data with the use of the commonly accepted medical information systems.

The approach of a country to persons with limited physical abilities is an important component of country's social-and-cultural policy. Blindness is a most severe variety of health disorders leading to social defect and social insufficiency. The role of adaptive physical culture is important within the system of the social-and-medical rehabilitation of the blind because the sedentary life mode has a negative effect on organisms of the disabled due to vision. Sports is not only a method for correcting the general somatic condition, but it is also an important social-and-physiological factor that enables the blind to comprehend their abilities as an example for others. As for our country, the information about the modern sports activities among the disabled due to vision is absolutely insufficient for the public at large. An analysis of results of examination (conducted by using the computer data base of the International Blind Sportsmen Association--IBSA) of 2386 blind and impaired vision sportsmen is presented in the paper. Data about sport disciplines and types of ophthalmic pathologies encountered among the high-class blind and impaired vision athletes from different world countries are described. The above data can be helpful in elaborating the rehabilitation programs for persons with severe disorders of the organ of vision to be used in rehabilitation centers, sport federations and clubs of the disabled as well as in other institutions dealing with rehabilitation of the disabled due to vision in our country.