Aid for those with hearing problems still insufficient

BEIJING - The majority of China's 27 million hearing-impaired people have difficulty accessing hearing aids and rehabilitative services, a senior expert revealed.

Less than 10 percent of the hearing impaired in urban areas are using hearing aids, while only 6 percent of their counterparts in rural areas are benefiting from the equipment, said Bu Xingkuan, director of World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for the Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Impairment.

More than 70 percent of people who are hearing impaired are older than 60, official statistics show.

About 2 million children under the age of six in China suffer from deafness or hearing problems with an annual increase of 30,000 new cases.

"People with hearing loss are the largest group of disabled in the country," said Lu Ying, head of the China Rehabilitation Devices Association, who is also the head of the Ministry of Civil Affairs' social welfare and charity promotion department.

Lu made the remarks at the opening ceremony for the 2011 China International Hearing Rehabilitation Congress held over the weekend.

Globally, there are 278 million people with moderate to profound hearing impairment, according to the figures released by the WHO in 2005.

However, the production of hearing aids and cochlear implants worldwide can only meet the needs of 10 percent of the hearing-impaired population, while more than 87 percent of the products flow into developed countries, Bu added.

The prices of hearing aids range from 3,000 yuan ($470) to 30,000 yuan, which is beyond the affordability of many Chinese families, Bu said.

He Ming, president of Jiujiang Concord Academy of the Deaf, an institution dedicated for providing sign language and Chinese for deaf students in Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, said the high price of hearing aids has scared most of his students away.

He said his school has about 100 students suffering from varying degrees of hearing loss and less than 20 percent of them are equipped with hearing instruments thanks to donations.

In addition to the insufficient production and high prices of hearing devices, China also lacks qualified hearing aid technicians to do evaluations and fittings, said Wang Shufeng, director of the health human resources development center under the Ministry of Health.

The government will place more emphasis on training technicians and improving the exam system to provide better services for the hearing impaired, he stressed.

Bu also urged the government to provide free hearing screening programs for newborns that will identify babies born with significant hearing loss and then provide them with appropriate intervention.

The central government announced in 2009 that China will allocate 420 million yuan by the end of 2012 to provide free hearing aids and rehabilitative services for about 10,000 hearing-impaired children who are from poor families.