The importance of spreading the word about hearing loss

Ear, Nose & Throat Journal, March, 2006 by Jun-Ichi Suzuki

Hearing impairment is of great importance internationally, but its management in many parts of the world is impeded by limited resources. Special efforts are needed to overcome such problems. Hearing International is an organization that has addressed this issue, and its activities from 1984 to 2005 are explained below.

Our Project for Prevention and Management of Hearing Impairment and Deafness was started in 1985 by the International Federation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies (IFOS) in close cooperation with the International Society of Audiology (ISA). Jean Market of Belgium, General Secretary of IFOS at that time, and Tore Lundborg of Sweden, on the executive boards of IFOS and ISA, were both great promoters of the project. The first Otological Center was built in Bangkok in 1985, and now more than 25 Otological Centers are functioning in the world.

The year 1992 was important for ear care in the world. The Centers in Jakarta and in Dhaka were set up in February. In July, IFOS's executive board members gathered in Sorrento, Italy, and decided to establish Hearing International (HI) as an international organization devoted exclusively to working for the hearing impaired in the world. HI was then organized in October in Morioka, Japan, during the International Congress of ISA.

Yash Pal Kapur in Michigan was elected as president of Heating International, myself as vice-president and editor of the HI newsletter, and Suchitra Prasansuk in Bangkok as general secretary and treasurer. The newsletter, Hearing International, was first published in December 1992 and has been published four times yearly since then.

The Project of HI-Japan for the Hearing Impaired in Indonesia, which was promoted during the ASEAN Congress of Otorhinolaryngology held in Jakarta in July 1992,

started in 1995 and successfully continued through 2003. By 2003, HI-Japan, in cooperation with HI-Indonesia, established many Ear Centers in Indonesia: in Jakarta, Solo, Makassar, and Denpasar. The project was extended for three more years to 2006, with the support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and it will be expanded to the whole country of Indonesia, as well as to neighboring Asian countries.

In Singapore in April 2001, during the 9th ASEAN Congress of ORL, the HI Committee on Management and Rehabilitation resolved to develop a high-quality, low-cost hearing aid. We believe hearing aids are much improved and advanced in many aspects, but many more improvements are needed. In particular, hearing aids remain too expensive for much of the world's population.

The support of societies and governments for the hearing impaired is far from adequate in most countries in the world. Big foundations support the blind but rarely the heating impaired and the deaf.

Most hearing people know very little about the difficulties of the hearing impaired, which are serious. We should especially recognize that education for the deaf is mostly available only up to the lower high school level, while much higher education is available for the blind. For example, the only university for the deaf in Japan was opened in Tsukuba city this year!

In 2001, we wrote a book in Japanese, Otology--Challenges for the Hearing Impairment, to help heating people understand the hearing impaired. This book was published by Chuko-Shinsha, one of the popular book publishers in Japan. We received many letters from the heating impaired. Very few, however, came from heating people. Although we learned more about the difficulties of the hearing impaired, we were very disappointed by receiving so few responses from hearing people. The objective of our writing the book was for hearing people to understand hearing impairment! This was not accomplished at all. We then published a book in English, Hearing Impairment: An Invisible Disability, by Springer-Verlag Tokyo. The 600-page book is for hearing people in the English-speaking world, to enhance their understanding of the hearing impaired. Its impact remains unknown.

All otolaryngologists should be cognoscenti of the overwhelming problems of hearing impairment and the challenges faced by healthcare professionals who care for patients with hearing loss. All of us can help advance the field in many ways. Raising public awareness and concern for this problem, and helping the hearing world (including politicians and philanthropists) to appreciate the value of hearing and the devastation of hearing loss, should be priorities for all otolaryngologists. Each of us can make a difference, and together we can change lives on every continent.

JUN-ICHI SUZUKI, MD

President of Hearing International Japan Immediate Past-President of Hearing International Special Consultant for IFOS, the International Federation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies Tokyo, Japan

Suggested Reading

Suzuki J-I. Middle Ear Implant: Implantable Heating Aids. Advances in Audiology, Vol. 4. Munich: Karger, 1988.

Suzuki J-I, Kobayashi T. Otology--Challenges for the Hearing Impairment. Tokyo: Chuko-Shinsho, 2001 (in Japanese).