Western Australia’s targeted screening for infant hearing loss

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common virus which often goes by unnoticed in healthy people. For pregnant women, however, it can pose a serious risk to their unborn child’s health, particularly their hearing. In fact, CMV is thought to be the cause of up to 20% of permanent childhood hearing loss.

Clinical Associate Professor Jafri Kuthubutheen wants to know just how common CMV is in infants with hearing loss. He is currently tracking this in infants, and determining whether early diagnosis can help parents/carers seek early treatment, ultimately improving their child’s hearing, speech and language development.

The study is being undertaken at Perth Children’s Hospital and is open to Western Australia participants. Parents with babies aged less than 21 days who have not passed their newborn hearing screen are invited to enrol (trial details available here).

To read how this project is already helping babies like Charlotte (pictured above) with hearing loss receive early treatment, click the link below.

This project is supported by a Passe & Williams Foundation Clinical Research Grant,