Deafness reversed: One injection restores hearing in just weeks
www.sciencedaily.com
A new gene therapy is giving people born deaf the chance to hear, often within just weeks. In a small but groundbreaking study, researchers delivered a working copy of a key hearing gene directly into the inner ear using a single injection. All ten patients, ranging from young children to adults, experienced improved hearing, with some showing rapid gains in just one month.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/61985999

A new gene therapy is giving people born deaf the chance to hear, often within just weeks. In a small but groundbreaking study, researchers delivered a working copy of a key hearing gene directly into the inner ear using a single injection. All ten patients, ranging from young children to adults, experienced improved hearing, with some showing rapid gains in just one month.

  • bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    142·
    12 days ago

    Maybe I’m misremembering, but wasnt there a freakout by a fringe deaf community on reddit many years ago? Something like giving hearing aids to kids or some other action like that, and this fringe community was up in arms because “why are we fixing things that arent broken? Deaf people arent flawed” or some nonsense or whatever.

    • homes@piefed.worldEnglish
      26·
      12 days ago

      There was a whole law & order episode about it. And it’s not just a “fringe group“. I went to the Rochester Institute of technology, which is also where the National Technical Institute for the Deaf is. There is quite a substantial community of hearing impaired people who view it as an entire identity similar to how the LGBTQ community view their identity. To “take away” their deafness is to take away that identity and thereby exclude them from that community because of what a huge community and culture has been built around it.

      To hearing people, that may seem difficult to understand, but, as someone who lived in a mixed community and around deaf people for many years, I definitely understand where they’re coming from. Yet, I still find it difficult to understand why someone who had the opportunity to gain the ability to hear would ultimately decide not to. Although I do understand why they might wrestle with such a decision. And, not being hearing impaired or deaf myself, I probably can never really fully understand it.

      It’s very complicated

      • whaleross@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        12 days ago

        I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this too and my theory is that it would be like someone offered you telepathy. Like, at first it sounds like an awesome superpower. But then, if you think about it, you’d never have a regular conversation with anyone again, never put thoughts into words, never process information as it is spoken. Maybe this will affect other ways you appreciate life. Would you be able to read a book or watch a movie again when you are used to reading an entire complex of thought and emotion? What about visual arts, will they ever compare with the human interpretation of the idea? Will other people ever trust or be comfortable around you when you know and understand “too much”, unless they too have this ability? Will they consider you a superior being or a freak? Will you consider them something lesser? Would you feel the need to try convert them too?

      • Mothra@mander.xyzEnglish
        3·
        12 days ago

        Okay but wouldn’t the treatment be voluntary? If they don’t want to who would force them?

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          9·
          12 days ago

          Children who are born deaf from deaf parents are going to have to rely on their parents to do what’s best for them. Many deaf parents would believe that keeping their child deaf is that.

        • frongt@lemmy.zipEnglish
          21·
          12 days ago

          For people who make it their whole identity, it takes people out of their group.

          • webp@mander.xyzEnglish
            2·
            12 days ago

            people who make it their whole identity

            It’s called deaf culture. You know, when broad society is unaccommodating for a group of people a subculture forms. This is the same shit people say about lgbt people btw.

            • frongt@lemmy.zipEnglish
              62·
              12 days ago

              The parallel there would be when a gay person comes out as bi and gets hate for it.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      2·
      12 days ago

      I don’t think that view is even fringe among them. I made the mistake of weighing in on it years ago on reddit, and have since learned my lesson.

    • webp@mander.xyzEnglish
      24·
      12 days ago

      That is actually a common opinion of the deaf community, minority groups aren’t necessarily fringe. It’s kind of insensitive the way you talk about this. They were born that way the same as people are born gay. If there was a “cure” for homosexuality we would hear the same thing.

        • webp@mander.xyzEnglish
          21·
          12 days ago

          Nah I’m not even deaf, ts just happens against every subculture. This mindset is a joke.

          almost destroyed my family

          But you’re not going to go into detail about it. I can only assume it’s as ridiculous.