Hearing loss and COVID-19: A note

Abstract

Dear Editor, COVID-19 is a new pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS CoV. This disease already causes a big pandemic and affects more than 120 countries. This disease firstly occurred in a province of China then spread worldwide [1]. Clinically, the disease usually presented with respiratory illness and death is a possible outcome [2,3]. The effect of COVID-19 is an interesting issue in audiology. In this report, the author would like to share preliminary observations from Thailand, the second country that COVID-19 occurred after China [4]. At present (15th March 2020), 82 COVID-19 patients with 1 dead case are statistically recorded in Thailand. One (1.22%) from these patients, an old female, has coincidence of neurosensory hearing loss. This patient was cared by standard respiratory care and recovery. There is no observation on change of hearing loss problem in this case. In fact, auditory complication due to coronavirus is little mentioned in the literature. In previous report on other coronavirus infection, brainstem involvement is observed [5] and the neuro-auditory problem is a possible. Further study on the auditory problem in patients with COVID-19 is very interesting. This is a short preliminary report but it is the first world report on interrelationship between COVID-19 and hearing loss. Declaration of competing interest None.