The breadth of research on the novel coronavirus is one of the highlights of this pandemic. The virus still has the upper hand in combat so far, and it may still take us over a year to defeat the pandemic, but scientists have made huge progress at an incredible pace. First, the virus was quickly sequenced, and geneticists showed that SARS-CoV-2 naturally evolved in animals and then spread to humans.
In addition, due to the advance acquisition of genomic information, the medical community began the first COVID-19 vaccine trial a few months after the pandemic began. The researchers also analyzed the viral ability of the virus on various surfaces and quickly provided evidence that the virus was primarily airborne. In addition, doctors who treat COVID-19 patients have proposed effective treatments and have quickly entered clinical trials. We have seen several significant successes ( remdesivir , dexamethasone , blood thinner), and have also seen some disappointments along the way (hydroxychloroquine, tocilizumab, Kaletra).
and coronavirus research work is almost not over yet, and scientists must also try to explain the impact of the virus on the human body, which may be quite puzzling. The latest research explores a kind of COVID-19 symptoms that doctors are constantly seeing in clinical practice, and they may finally have an explanation.
Some patients report that after infection with new pathogens, their ears may sound, and this may lead to temporary or even permanent hearing loss. The first reports of this horrible symptom emerged in the summer, and researchers from the UK published their findings, detailing the situation.
A large number of COVID-19 patients experience tinnitus, followed by hearing loss. CNN reported two such cases in detail over the weekend, including Meredith Harrell, 42.
"It's like someone turned on a switch," she told CNN that her right ear suddenly lost hearing in July, and her right ear started to tinnitus before she realized she couldn't hear anything from that ear at all. She didn't know why, but later she was tested for COVID-19 to understand the reason, and there were no other symptoms that she had contracted the novel coronavirus, but an otologist told her that the virus could be the culprit for hearing problems.
Even young patients can experience this symptom. A 23-year-old student, Liam, lost 70%-80% of his hearing in his left ear after contracting coronavirus. Liam also has other symptoms, including fever, headache and fatigue.
High doses of steroids (such as dexamethasone) have been clearly effective against the virus and can at least help with treatment. They worked for Liam, who could now hear everything but the high notes, and his tinnitus was still there and probably never went away. But steroids may not necessarily make all patients’ problems disappear. Another patient, Harrell, also used steroids, but the treatment was not effective. The doctor told her that she was unlikely to recover her hearing, needed to wear a hearing aid, and that the tinnitus might not go away.
Doctors still cannot fully explain how viruses affect the inner ear, but other viruses such as measles , mumps and meningitis can also have similar effects on the ears.
One way to test if a virus attacks the inner ear is to perform a biopsy, but it is a risky procedure that can damage tissue. The Johns Hopkins medical team led by Dr. Matthew Stewart performed autopsy on three patients who died of complications of COVID-19. They detected the virus in both , , and the mastoid bone behind the ear.
Co-author Kevin Munro, an early study from the UK, believes that this theory makes sense. "The capillaries in the inner ear are the smallest in the human body, so it doesn't take much to block them," he said. Munro and his team plan to conduct a larger study of hearing loss caused by COVID-19.
