A mother-of-two in the US has lost all hearing in her right ear after suffering mild symptoms from COVID-19.
Meredith Harrell, 42, heard a sudden ringing sound and lost all hearing in her right ear in July, she told CNN.
Despite experiencing no other symptoms, Harell returned a positive COVID-19 test a week after the tinnitus began. A doctor told her the virus was the likely cause of her hearing loss.
"It was like someone flipped a switch," Harell told CNN.
Doctors told Harrell that her hearing may never come back and that the tinnitus may not stop. Soon she will be fitted with a hearing aid.
In July, researchers discovered COVID-19 in the ears of patients, suggesting that hearing loss could be a rare symptom of the disease.
"We're hearing more and more that people have hearing loss as part of their COVID infection," Dr Matthew Stewart, associate professor of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, told CNN.
Stewart says COVID-19 is known to cause blood clots in other areas of the body, and he thinks that could be happening in the "extremely small blood vessels" in the inner ear.
Viruses such as measles, mumps, and meningitis are known to sometimes cause sudden hearing loss, and a few small studies have linked hearing loss with COVID-19.
In one study, published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, three patients who died of COVID-19 were examined.
The researchers found COVID-19 in the right middle ear of one patient, and in the left and right mastoids and left and right middle ears of another. The mastoid is a bone in the skull, located just behind the ear.
The third patient tested negative for all samples.
Another study asked COVID-19 patients whether they'd experienced any hearing changes or ringing in their ears eight weeks after being discharged. Thirteen percent of the 138 patients answered 'yes'.
High doses of oral steroids have been used to treat hearing loss induced by COVID-19, but Harell told CNN the steroids didn't help her.
"I wasn't sick, but I still had consequences," Harrell told the news station. "I hope people get the message that this is no joke."
Harrell believes she was infected with COVID-19 by a friend they met outside in June. The friend called her a few days after visiting to say he had been exposed to the virus.
Harrell's family all tested positive for COVID-19; her husband experienced chest tightness for a few days, and her children, aged 9 and 10, had no symptoms.
In the US, there are now more than 7.7 million confirmed cases and 214,000 deaths.
