2016 Volume 37 Issue 1 Pages 40-44
As a consequence of rubella outbreaks from 2012 through 2013, 45 cases of congenital rubella syndrome were reported in Japan. We report the case of a boy who suffered from late-onset bilateral hearing loss due to congenital rubella infection. His unvaccinated mother had been infected with rubella in the early stage of pregnancy. He was born healthy without any symptoms of congenital rubella syndrome, so congenital rubella infection was diagnosed. Hearing was examined in the newborn period by auto-auditory brainstem response (AABR) and both ears passed. When he was 13 months old, his parents suspected hearing loss because his reactions to sound seemed to have deteriorated. He was treated for otitis media with effusion for a few months, and then diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss at 18 months old. The threshold for ABR was 60 dBnHL in the right ear but was scaled out in the left ear. The diagnosis was finally changed from congenital rubella infection to congenital rubella syndrome.
