BEIJING - China has an estimated nine million people suffering from epilepsy and less than 30 percent of them have received appropriate medical treatment, according to Li Shizhuo, president of the China Association Against Epilepsy (CAAE).

Li provided the statistics at a launch ceremony for a three-year long charitable program sponsored by the CAAE's youth committee that will provide care to epileptic patients living in six underdeveloped counties in Guizhou, Qinghai, Jiangxi, Sichuan and Gansu provinces, as well as the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

He ascribed the lack of medical treatment for these patients largely to poor acknowledgement and insufficient medical resources in the areas, adding that 40.6 percent of patients do not have access to medical care, while another 35.4 percent are being treated by unqualified medical workers.

About 60 to 70 percent of epileptics can bring their illness under control if they and their families cooperate positively with doctors, said Jiang Yuwu, head of the CAAE's youth committee.

Epilepsy is a common and diverse set of chronic neurological disorders characterized by seizures. Seven out of every 1,000 people suffer from epilepsy in China.