Hearing diseases and Advertising

HIV and AIDS

HIV and AIDS are two infections that have been talked a lot about in our society, however little is known about their effect on hearing. HIV is a disease of the human immune system caused by infection with human immunodeficiency virus. A person with HIV may experience influenza like symptoms and cause them to be prone to infections and tumors that do not usually affect people who have working immune systems. There have also been correlations drawn between people infected with HIV and hearing loss. However this relationship may be due to the ototoxicity of the drugs used to treat HIV, the weak immune systems, and age. Therefore, there may not actually be a direct correlation and rather hearing loss is just an effect of treatments and causes of HIV. Never the less, doctors and medical institutions are going great lengths to ensure people are aware of the effects of HIV and how to be careful and preventative of this infection. Doctors advertise using websites, commercials, and articles. Many of this advertising is considered PR as doctors are not always buying air time to educate people on HIV, whether they are posting free flyers and having speakers talk to clinics and schools.

Labrynthitis and Meniere’s 

Two other diseases that also effect hearings are labrynthitis and Meniere’s disease. Labrynthitis is the inflammation of the inner ear and can either be toxic, acute, or viral. Meniere’s disease is associated with tinnitus or head noise, dizziness, and hearing loss. It is often heard that this is a sudden onset or that the patient feels an “aura” coming on. Their symptoms come and go and finally can become permanent if not treated properly. This disease is very well known by the public as it is advertised through famous a person who has been affected by the disease or knows someone who has. Katie Leclerc, for example, the abc studio star of Switched at Birth struggles with Meniere’s disease and goes on record, through her show and commercials to speak about it and make others aware.

http://www.asha.org/aud/articles/menieres-disease-eval-management/ In this article it explains how treatment options include a Meniett device which send pressure pulses to the ear. How does this help treat Menieres and what symptom is it suppressing?

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/menieresdisease.html This article describes one symptom as “dizziness,” how can this be treated?