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One day last July, Meridt Harel felt a ringing in one of her ears, and suddenly she lost her hearing in that ear and was perplexed.
For a week, Harrell’s disease remained a mystery, until he decided to get tested for Covid-19. Notably, the result was positive, although he did not feel the known symptoms of the disease, such as a high fever, cough, and loss of smell.
An ear, nose and throat specialist told Harrell that the virus was most likely the cause of his hearing loss in one of his ears.
Viruses that cause some diseases like measles and meningitis are known to sometimes cause sudden hearing loss, and there is growing evidence that the emerging corona virus should be added to the list.
Dr. Matthew Stewart, assistant professor of otorhinolaryngology at Johns Hopkins University, told CNN: “We hear more and more about people with hearing loss as part of a Covid infection,” although the main outlet for the virus to reach the lungs it’s the nose. It is also possible orally and ocularly, according to some studies.
There are no statistics on how common it is for people who have contracted COVID-19 to develop hearing loss, but some small studies suggest a possible link.
For example, a British study published in the International Journal of Audiology and included 138 Covid-19 patients, 13 percent of whom experienced ringing in their ears two months after they were discharged from the hospital.
Doctors cannot say for sure that the virus is attacking the inner ear, due to the risk of such an exam.
But Stewart and his colleagues were able to perform these types of operations on the bodies of three people who died after being infected with the Covid-19 virus, and the remarkable result is that they found the virus in two of them, specifically in the middle ear and ear. Mastoid bone of the skull, which is located directly behind the ear. Their study was published in the Gamma Journal of Otolaryngology.
Doctors don’t know why some Covid-19 patients have hearing problems, but the virus is believed to cause clots in blood vessels in the ear, which in turn affects the sense of hearing.
Dr. Stuart says that treatment for this condition involves taking high doses of steroids by mouth.
