cause deafness

About 5% of infected children get pneumonia and about 1 in every 1,000 will develop brain swelling, which can cause deafness or intellectual disability.

With more than 100 genes that can cause deafness when mutated, there are other potential targets for gene therapies.

With many of the other mutations that cause deafness, hair cells die during infancy or even at the fetal stage.

If the Lilly trial of otoferlin gene therapy is proved to be effective and safe, “there will be a lot of interest in other genes” that cause deafness, said Dr. Margaret A. Kenna, an otolaryngologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School.

"You can often see these blisters in your ear canal when the doctor looks in," which can cause deafness, he added.