Experimental gene therapy helps treat kids with inherited hearing loss

Experimental gene therapy studied in both China and the United States has allowed several children born with inherited deafness to hear.

On Tuesday, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia announced improvements in the hearing of an 11-year-old boy, Aissam Dam of Spain, who was born unable to hear. After being treated at the hospital in October, he became the first person to get gene therapy in the U.S. for congenital deafness.

The hospital — one of several sites in a test sponsored by a subsidiary of Eli Lilly called Akouos — reported Dam heard sounds for the first time. Though the sound is muffled, like he's wearing foam earplugs, he's now able to hear his father's voice and cars on the road.