Infectious still represent one of the leading non-genetic causes of childhood deafness.

For this reason, screening prevention campaigns for infections during pregnancy are in place in various countries and vaccination campaigns have played a significant role in prevention, as new pharmacological therapeutic approaches administered to infected mothers. Over the years, this has absolutely led to better control of infections and, consequently, better management of the impact on the hearing function.

Despite this, an uneven distribution of these risk factors across the world remains high today.

The treatment of virus-induced hearing loss faces several obstacles, probably because of different biofunctions and tropisms that each virus exploits that result in hearing loss.

Furthermore, temporary or permanent molecular effects of many other viruses on the auditory system have remained elusive both in adults and infants.

Some viruses rarely manifest as obvious congenital infections but might be capable of disturbing the embryonic or fetal development if they can cross the placental barrier during early pregnancy.

The exact mechanisms by which viruses cause hearing loss is still not clearly identified at molecular level.

Determining commonalities and differences in such molecular mechanisms helps to develop better therapies against viruses triggering hearing loss.

Hearing loss caused by these agents can occur in a variety of ways, being unilateral or bilateral, stable or progressive, and of varying degrees. There are also a number of late onset cases of hearing loss occuring during the early years of life and this underlines the importance of a continued surveillance.