The Audiology Condition

HHTM Staff: Today’s post almost completes the Hansen’s disease/Leprosy series and the connection to sensorineural hearing loss.  Last post tabulated data from all available studies, concluding that: vestibular disorders are uncommon or not related to Hansen’s disease hearing loss is related and under-reported, possibility to a large degree the hearing losses are sensorineural the hearing losses may be specifically neural in

HHTM staff: In the penultimate post on leprosy,  the series finally begins addressing how the auditory/vestibular system fits into the spectrum of symptoms comprising this 20+ million year old disease.  The bacterial parasite that haunts the human body and causes leprosy had evaded scientific and medical understanding, even in the modern world.    Audiology is no exception. Added to the evasive

HHTM staff: Today’s post continues the discussion of Hansen’s disease, leprosy, as part of HHTM’s infectious diseases series.  Last post described the difficulties of differential diagnosis and early philosophies of care and treatment of this little-understood but stigmatizing disease. Leprosariums in the 19th and 20th century isolated and quarantined-for-life those thought to have leprosy.  Carville was one of those places

By: Diana Holan, MS For decades, the standard medical treatment for childhood ear infections was antibiotic treatment, or PE tubes for difficult cases. According to a 2012 NIH report, there was a significant decline in office visits by children with otitis media (35% in 1997 to 25% in 2007), with the sharpest drop for children < 2 years that may

HHTM Staff: Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) history, prevalence, clinical manifestations, mechanism of destruction, and means of diagnosis have been described so far in this series.  Today’s post touches on differential diagnosis and early, barbaric, ineffective treatment methods that  left those suspected of harboring the disease with ruined lives. Delayed Differential Diagnosis   The World Health Organization writes that  “clinical signs and symptoms… are

HHTM Staff: Hansen’s disease, (leprosy) is one of the “neglected” infectious diseases under review in this series.  Hansen’s is caused by a parasitic bacteria which makes a comfortable home in human bodies, sometimes for decades before manifesting as a variety of symptoms that depend on the person’s autoimmune response.   The bacteria is likely the oldest human parasite on earth, having

HHTM Staff:  Today’s post continues the discussion of Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy, as part of HHTM’s Staff writings for infectious diseases series.  Leprosy is caused by a secretive bacteria that strips itself down after plunging into the human body, where it takes up long-term residence as a parasite.  It’s sneaky, disguising itself from the body’s autoimmune system for years, then emerging en

From HHTM Staff:     Hansen’s disease, aka leprosy, is the subject of a multi-post chapter in HHTM Staff contribution series on transmittable but mysterious diseases that affect the body in different, often chronic ways, including the hearing and balance systems.   Today’s post continues the primer on Hansen’s, compiling basic information that Audiologists and other health professionals need to know when managing care

HHTM staff Today’s post continues the discussion of Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy, as part of HHTM’s series on insidious, successful diseases of long-standing that may have effects on hearing and balance.   Gaining information on such diseases is the first step that Audiologists and other health professionals need to take in order to recognize and handle rare sightings and their

HHTM Staff Today begins a discussion of Hansen’s disease (aka leprosy) as a continuation of HHTM’s series on insidious, successful diseases of long-standing.  Malaria was covered in multiple posts earlier.   The purpose of this series is to uncover possible links to hearing loss, on the understanding that increasing global travel and inadequate information, training and equipment to recognize and