Baby deaf after being born with Herpes Virus

[Guest guest]

When is the medical community going to stop telling people these viruses are

" harmless " ?

An 11-month-old baby born with a strain of the herpes virus that left her

profoundly deaf in both ears can finally hear after being fitted with cochlear

implants, London’s Daily Mail reported.

Lucy Rees was born with cytomeglavirus, which is a common virus but rarely

causes illness. It can be spread from person to person by contact with urine,

saliva, breast milk, blood and semen.

The virus is also spread from a mother to child.

Lucy was born prematurely last December with the virus and doctors were unsure

she would survive. When she did pull through, it was clear she had lost any

ability to hear.

But doctors at England’s Birmingham Children’s Hospital recently fitted Lucy

with cochlear implants, small, electronic devices that provide sounds to people

who are deaf. The implant consists of an external portion, which sits behind the

ear, and another part, which is surgically placed under the skin.

Cochlear implants have a microphone, a speech processor, a transmitter and

receiver/stimulator and an electrode array, which collects the impulses from the

stimulator and sends them to regions of the auditory nerve.

“It’s a slow process for Lucy because she is having to learn how to hear,â€

said Lucy’s mom Louise. “She has to have it off at night, but when I switch

it on in the morning, you can see it in her face.â€

The external parts of the implant have to be removed if Lucy is near any water,

including when she is swimming