Types & Effects of Deafness
It's a little known fact that HIV is one of several diseases that can affect a person's hearing.
While the effects of diseases like Meningitis, Mumps, and Measles is better known, HIV can also impair hearing if an infection arises in the inner ear.
HIV (which stands for Human Imunodeficiency Virus) causes AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) which attacks the bodies immune system, inhibiting it's ability to fight off infections.
There are many parts of the body that would be wide open to infection if a person's immune system ceased to function, and the ears are not excluded.
Bacteria and other toxins are daily introduced into the body and resisted due to a healthy immune system. If something attacks the immune system and 'turns it off', then frequent illnesses will be the result.
People with HIV need to take special care that they do not get infected or come into contact with infected material. Since their immune system has been compromised, they will have a much harder time fighting off any infection that might arise.
Tragically, beyond the social stigma that is sometimes attributed to diseases like HIV or Syphillis, there is also the fact that these diseases can pave the way for infections to the ears and lead to damaged hearing.
Hearing-related AIDS disorders have swelled to such a degree in places like South Africa that overwhelmed health professionals there are seeking aid from abroad to deal with the situation. There are thousands of cases of conductive hearing loss due to fluid build up in the ears waiting for treatment.
HIV and AIDS infections have swelled to such numbers in some parts of Africa that now thousands of children are born with the virus, and the resultant defective immune systems, and therefore begin coming down with infections almost from the cradle. Infectious maladies such as Chronic Supprative Otitis Media (CSOM) where the ear constantly discharges fluid due to an infected middle ear, is alarmingly common in children with HIV. Antibiotic ear drops can alleviate many of the cases, as can regular cleaning of the ear.
Due to the growing recognition of the effect of HIV on hearing, many world bodies are now taking action to provide medicines and needed supplies to combat the spread of hearing related infections in the areas of the continent that are struggling with the disease.
In America the struggle against HIV-related hearing loss is often due to many of the extreme drug therapies that AIDS patients undergo in an attempt to fight off even worse infections. Some of the strong drugs needed to fight off AIDs have side effects that include loss of hearing. It is often a bitter trade off being made, the taking of a drug that might dull one's hearing senses in order to fight off an infection of the immune system itself.
Hope can be taken in the fact that great strides have been made in the past 20 years in dealing with the HIV virus, and many people are able to lead full and productive lives while never developing AIDS itself.
Medical discoveries and testing continue at a high rate and it could very well be that in the next few years a cure can be found for HIV and it will join the ash heap of once dreaded diseases such as polio and typhus.
