A first patient has been officially recognized as having become deaf following a Covid-19 infection. Several cases of hearing disorders linked to the disease have been identified in recent weeks.
- Several patients infected with Covid-19 have reported a ringing in the ear followed abruptly by hearing loss.
- Researchers advocate for ear symptom screening for infected patients in the hospital setting.
After the effects on taste and the smell, does a Covid-19 infection cause hearing problems? In the magazine BMJ Case Reports on October 13, researchers recorded the first official case of a patient becoming deaf following an infection with the virus. “Despite the considerable literature on Covid-19 and the various symptoms associated with the virus, there is a lack of discussion on the relationship between Covid-19 and hearing”, believe the researchers.
Blood clotting at the origin of the evil
Cases of patients who suffered hearing impairment as a result of the virus have emerged recently. On October 10, the American television channel CNN broadcast a report in which Meredith Harrell, a 42-year-old mother, testified to a sudden loss of hearing last July. “It’s like someone flipped a switch” at the level of his right ear, she described. It started with “a ring” then nothing more: she did not hear any more of this ear. The result of his positivity to Covid-19 did not come until the following week. His doctor, a specialist in ear diseases, told him that the virus was the cause of his hearing loss.
Interviewed by CNN, Matthew Stewart, doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital, confirmed that Covid-19 can attack the hearing of infected patients. To study this new symptom, he performed three autopsies of deceased Covid-19 patients and found that the virus was present in them in the middle ear and the mastoid bone, which is just behind the ear. “Personally, I suspect that the coronavirus has the potential to have even worse consequences for the ear.”, he continues. He believes that blood clotting is the cause of the problem.
Not the only viral infection that causes hearing damage
The researchers who reported on the case of the British patient who had become deaf are advocating for screening for hearing loss in hospitals, including in intensive care. This could allow for prompt treatment with steroids that offer the best chance of hearing recovery. In addition, another case was described by the authors of the study. He is a 45-year-old man with asthma being treated for Covid-19. After hospitalization, he emerged unscathed before noticing, like the American patient, a ringing sensation in his left ear which was followed by sudden hearing loss. After treatment with corticosteroids, he was able to recover, but not completely.
The coronavirus is not the only viral infection that has auditory consequences. Others, such as influenza, herpes viruses or cytomegalovirus, are known to cause this sensory deficit. SARS-CoV-2, which binds to cells in the lungs, was recently found in similar cells in the ear. This virus also generates an inflammatory reaction and an increase in substances (cytokines) that have been implicated in hearing loss, explain the authors.
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