Most people will by now have had at least one Covid-19 infection. While the consequences of these range from being entirely asymptomatic at one end of the spectrum to death and debilitating ‘long Covid’ at the other, there are many possible consequences that are only gradually being understood.
The possibility that hearing loss can be caused by the virus is not something that gets much attention, but it is something you should be concerned about and if you think your hearing has declined after an infection, that is an extra reason to book a free hearing test.
Speaking to the Huffington Post, Dr Amesh Adalja from Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security said there have been many reports of Covid impacting on hearing and it is known that the virus can infect ear cells.
“The concern is that SARS-CoV-2 – or the immune response to it – may damage the cells of the ear responsible for transmitting sound information to the brain,” he added.
Earlier this year, a study published in the US found that among patients who had severe Covid, seven per cent had suffered serious loss and between 12 and 13 per cent had endured mild impairment.
These indicators are, of course, the results of the earliest research and due to the novel nature of Covid when it emerged three years ago there may be a lot more to be discovered about how the virus can affect hearing, along with so many other long-term health effects it can have.
Even so, it is important to keep checking your hearing at any time, so if you have had a Covid infection, as most people have, this can be added to the list.
While the idea that the virus can affect eyesight got plenty of early publicity through Dominic Cummins’ infamous drive to Barnard Castle, it is clearly time that your hearing got some attention too.
