Impact on Hearing Among SARS COV-2 Infected Adults and Children Born to Gestational COVID-19 Infected Mothers: A Prospective Case Control Study

SARS COV 2 infection affects primarily the respiratory system and various organs in humans is responsible for higher mortality secondary to cytokine storm during the COVID-19 pandemic. It affects the internal auditory system is responsible for Sensory neural hearing loss in adults as well as children born to COVID-19 infected mothers. This study was aimed to detect the pattern of hearing loss in COVID-19 infected adults and pattern of hearing loss in children born to gestational COVID-19 infected mothers. Fifty asymptomatic RT-PCR COVID-19 infected adults and age, sex matched healthy controls were evaluated for audiological profile using Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA). Children born to COVID-19 infected mothers were tested using Transient product otoacoustic emissions and click-evoked auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) compared with children born to non-COVID mothers. PTA auditory profile of COVID-19 infected adults on day 7 had 30% (16 out of 50) significant high frequency sensory neural hearing impairment for 4000 Hz ( p value 0.003), 6000 Hz ( p value 0.001), 8000 Hz ( p value 0.001). Repeat PTA testing on day 30 showed normal hearing. Whereas in children, 40% (n = 20) born to COVID-19 infected mothers had OAE as “Refer”. BERA (ABRs) testing of that OAE "Refer" children revealed 30% (n = 6) hearing impairment. COVID-19 infection cause transient type of high frequency sensory neural hearing loss in adults. Whereas in children born to COVID-19 infected mothers there is risk of developing permanent, progressive or long-standing transient type of sensory neural hearing loss.