Children’s Hearing Loss Caused by Viral Infections: The Current Situation and Future Measures

Abstract

Hearing loss in children has been attributed to infectious diseases since long before. They include congenital infections such as congenital rubella syndrome and congenital syphilis as well as acquired infections such as meningitis, encephalitis, otitis media, measles and scarlet fever. Development and distribution of vaccines (e. g., rubella, measles, Japanese encephalitis, pneumococci, Hib and so on) and antibiotics (e. g., penicillin) have turned many of them to rare diseases and reduced the number of children with hearing loss as the sequelae in developed countries. Taking a look at the situation in developing countries, however, infants with congenital rubella syndrome have been born in countries where rubella-containing vaccine has not been introduced into the national immunization program, and many other infectious diseases have been in the out-of-control condition. Even in Japan, a couple of infectious diseases remain the threat of hearing loss, mainly congenital cytomegalovirus infection and mumps.