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)