'During the peak of the pandemic, when patients were having more life-threatening complications, they weren't paying much attention to whether their hearing was reduced or whether they had vertigo.
'Our study showed evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 can directly infect the inner ear,' Stankovic said. Now, after months of research which culminated in the recent publication of a study in Communications Medicine which links the coronavirus with hearing and balance disorders, Stankovic believes these symptoms should be on everybody's radar.
Sure, everyone had heard about other odd sensory side effects, such as loss of taste and smell, because of the disease, but hearing loss? That wasn't even on most people's radar. Early into the pandemic, Konstantina Stankovic, MD, PhD, an inner ear researcher, and otolaryngologist, was surprised when she began seeing patients exposed to COVID-19 in her Massachusetts clinic complaining of hearing loss, ringing in the ears known as tinnitus, and dizziness, which often starts in the inner ear.
