China's first branch of the united office of three international
hearing societies, Jiangsu Otology and Hearing Center, opened
Sunday in east China's Jiangsu
Province.
The three organizations are Hearing International, International
Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies and International
Hearing Society.
World Health Organization (WHO) statistics show that 250
million people suffer from hearing impairment among a total of 450
million disabled people and most of them live in rural areas in
developing countries, said Suchitra Prasansuk, president of Hearing
International.
Prasansuk said international hearing experts and otologists have
been working hard to prevent hearing trauma and deafness worldwide
and build branches of international hearing organizations in
developing countries.
Hearing obstacles has become the No. 1 disease disabling people
in China and disease incidence is still increasing, said Bu
Xingkuan, director of the newly-founded center, who is also an
academic member of International Hearing.
The center will promote cooperation with international hearing
organizations, set up a database on China's hearing diseases and
strengthen training of rural medical staff so that they could spot
hearing obstacles earlier, Bu said.
China has a relatively complete basic health care network and
this could help prevent and intervene in hearing diseases, said
Andrew Smith, a WHO official in charge of prevention of deafness
and blindness.
Overseas experts from countries like Thailand, the United States
and Britain, also took part in the opening ceremony and held a
Hearing International Symposium.
(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2003)