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A man from the UK had sudden hearing loss after testing positive for COVID-19, a medical journal has reported.
The 45-year-old man who suffered from asthma but was described as “fit and well” was admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) after contracting COVID-19.

However, after a long period of time in the ICU, it was found that he had developed hearing problems.

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Inside Warrington hospital’s COVID-19 intensive care unit

Although this is the first report of coronavirus-linked hearing loss in the UK, it is not the first in the world.
The British man’s hearing loss, known as sudden onset sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL), was detailed in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

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The man was admitted to hospital 10 days after the onset of coronavirus symptoms and required intubation at an ICU for 30 days.

He also suffered from high blood pressure, ventilator-associated pneumonia, anaemia and a blood clot.

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A week after he left the ICU, he had noticed SSNHL and left-sided tinnitus, despite having no history of hearing loss or ear problems.
He was seen by ear, nose and throat specialists a week later and was treated with oral steroids for seven days, which reportedly resulted in a partial subjective improvement in his condition.
A small amount of steroid was also injected directly into his ear, but this did not help clear his hearing loss.
“Hearing loss and tinnitus are symptoms that have been seen in patients with both Covid-19 and influenza virus but have not been highlighted,” the authors wrote.
“In the case presented here, the patient was previously well with no other attributable cause for his SSNHL.
“Furthermore, it must be noted that the patient mentioned the difficulty acknowledging the hearing loss in the busy ITU environment and his realisation afterwards.
“Despite the low numbers of studies, it is significant to consider the possibility of a relationship between Covid-19 and SSNHL.”
They added: “This is the first reported case of sensorineural hearing loss following COVID-19 infection in the UK.

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“Given the widespread presence of the virus in the population and the significant morbidity of hearing loss, it is important to investigate this further.
“This is especially true given the need to promptly identify and treat the hearing loss and the current difficulty in accessing medical services.
“We suggest that patients are asked about hearing loss in the ITU environments when applicable, and any patient reporting acute hearing loss should be referred to otolaryngology on an emergency basis.”
Sudden hearing loss can “easily be missed in an intensive care setting”, according to experts from University College London and the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, who have called for medics to be aware of the complication.
By raising awareness, medics would be able to offer an early course of steroids, which would in turn give the best chance of recovery.

A trio of astronauts have reached the International Space Station in just three hours by using a new fast-track manoeuvre.
NASA’s Kate Rubins, alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchko, blasted off from the Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan early on Wednesday morning.

The launch used a two-orbit, three hour approach for the first time.
Previously, it took twice as long to reach the station.

The trio successfully docked with the ISS at 4.48am ET, tweeted NASA, after launching at 1.45am.

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They will join station commander Chris Cassady, as well as cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, who have been aboard since April and are scheduled to return to Earth next week.

At a news conference before launch, Ms Rubins said the crew had spent weeks in quarantine at the Star City training facility outside Moscow, and then at Baikonur, to ensure they did not have coronavirus.

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They will spend six months at the space station, some 253 miles (408km) above Earth.

Image: They launched on a Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft. Pic: Roscosmos/Reuters
The mission follows the launch earlier in October of a special food delivery to the ISS, including meats, cheeses, oranges, pecans and chocolate-covered cranberries – just in time for the American holiday of Thanksgiving.
The Cygnus capsule contained more fresh food than usual, as the number of people at the space station will increase from six to seven with SpaceX’s second astronaut launch at the end of the month.
It also included pressurised air tanks to help offset a leak at the space station; a new $23m (£18m) titanium toilet designed for women, and a VR-camera which will provide cinematic shots of spacewalks and other outdoor scenes from space.

Facebook is banning adverts that discourage people from having vaccinations, but posts from anti-vaxxers will still be allowed on the platform.
Adverts that perpetuate false information about vaccinations, such as the discredited theory that they give people autism, are already banned by the platform, and the latest move will expand the ban to paid adverts that tell people not to have jabs.

However, Facebook will allow a political exception, and adverts that “advocate for or against legislation or government policies around vaccines”, including those for COVID-19, will still be allowed and have to be approved by the site.

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UK vaccine taskforce ‘optimistic’ on trials

Unpaid posts made by users or groups that discourage vaccinations will still be allowed, with the new ban only reaching to paid adverts.
The social media giant will also run information campaigns to encourage users to get a flu vaccine this year and is working with organisations such as the World Health Organisation and UNICEF to improve vaccination rates.

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Groups and pages that spread false information are already hidden on the platform’s search tool, and since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook has tightened its rules around COVID-related misinformation.

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The platform also steers users away from health-related groups, saying it is important that people get their information from authoritative sources.
It also bans what it defines as “dangerous” misinformation about the pandemic, and has even removed posts by US President Donald Trump as a result of the policy.

This incredible image of a Siberian tiger, a species which has previously been “hunted to the verge of extinction”, has won the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year award for 2020.
Selected from more than 49,000 entries from around the world, Sergey Gorshkov’s photograph was praised as a “scene like no other” by judges of the annual Natural History Museum competition.

Titled The Embrace, it shows an Amur, or Siberian, tigress hugging an ancient Manchurian fir tree in the Russian Far East. It took the photographer 11 months to capture, using hidden cameras.

Image: Liina Heikkinen’s shot of a fox cub earned her the title of this year’s Young Wildife Photographer Of The Year
It was named the overall winner alongside 16 other category winners, including Liina Heikkinen’s Fox That Got The Goose, which earned her the title of Young Wildlife Photographer Of The Year.
Now in its 56th year, the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year competition attracts entries from around the world and is open to snappers of all ages, nationalities and abilities. This year’s winner was announced by the Duchess of Cambridge, herself a keen photographer.

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Dr Tim Littlewood, the museum’s executive director of science, said Gorshkov’s “emotive” photo of the tigress offered hope.

“Hunted to the verge of extinction in the past century, the Amur population is still threatened by poaching and logging today.
“The remarkable sight of the tigress immersed in her natural environment offers us hope, as recent reports suggest numbers are growing from dedicated conservation efforts. Through the unique emotive power of photography, we are reminded of the beauty of the natural world and our shared responsibility to protect it.”
Here are all the category winners, and the stories behind the striking images.
Perfect Balance by Andres Luis Dominguez Blanco, Spain – winner of the 10 years and under category

This European stonechat bird was captured on camera in a meadow near Andres’ home in Andalucia, Spain. The young photographer asked his dad to drive to the meadow and park so he could use the car as a hide, kneel on the back seat and, with his lens on the window sill, shoot this pretty image through the open window.
A Mean Mouthful by Sam Sloss, Italy/US – winner of the 11-14 category

On a diving holiday in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sam spotted this clownfish whose mouth was constantly open – but it was only when he downloaded the photos that he saw tiny eyes peeping out of its mouth. The eyes belong to a “tongue-eating louse”, a parasitic ispod that swims in through the gills as a male, changes sex and attaches itself to the base of the tongue, sucking blood. When the tongue withers and drops off, the isopod takes its place.
The Pose by Mogens Trolle, Denmark – winner of the Animal Portraits category

This young male proboscis monkey was a wild visitor to a feeding station at the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary in Sabah, Borneo. Trolle, who has been photographing primates around the world for five years, described him as “the most laidback character”.
Life In The Balance by Jaime Culebras, Spain – winner of the Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles category

After walking for four hours in heavy rain, Culebras captured this image of a glass frog eating a spider in the foothills of the Andes, northwestern Ecuador – and found out it was a newly discovered species, distinguished by yellow spots on its back and a lack of webbing between its fingers. Named the Manduriacu glass frog, this is the first ever picture of this species feeding.
Great Crested Sunrise by Jose Luis Ruiz Jimenez, Spain – winner of the Behaviour: Birds category

After several hours chest-deep in water near Brozas, in the west of Spain, Luis managed to capture this great crested grebe family. On this particular morning, he got the shot as the parent on breakfast duty emerged from the water with a meal for the chicks.
A Tale Of Two Wasps by Frank Deschandol, France – winner of the Behaviour: Invertebrates category

This image, showing a red-banded sand wasp and a cuckoo wasp, is the result of painstaking preparation. Deschandol positioned his camera next to a sandy bank near his home in Normandy, northern France, setting up an infrared beam. When broken, this triggered a super-fast shutter system he had built using an old hard drive and positioned in front of the lens, as the camera’s own shutter would have been too slow. Despite his tiny subjects and complex technical set-up, he captured the perfect shot.
When Mother Says Run by Shanyuan Li, China – winner of the Behaviour: Mammals category

This is a rare picture of a family of Pallas’s cats, or manuls, in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in northwest China, the result of six years’ work at high altitude. The cats are normally solitary, mostly active at dawn and dusk and usually very hard to find. After long-term observation, Li tracked the family as they descended to about 3,800 metres (12,500 feet) and set up a hide on the hill opposite their lair, an old marmot hole. Hours of patience were rewarded when the three kittens came out to play, while their mother kept her eye on a Tibetan fox lurking nearby.
Out Of The Blue by Gabriel Eisenband, Colombia – winner of the Plants and Fungi category

Eisenband set out to photograph Ritak’ Uwa Blanco, the highest peak in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. But in the end, it was the foreground of flowers, known as white arnica, that captured his attention. After sunset, a “blue hour” drenched the scene in an ethereal light.
The Golden Moment by Songda Cai, China – winner of the Under Water category

This image of a tiny diamondback squid paralarva (the stage between hatchling and sub-adult) was taken on a night dive far off the coast of Anilao, in the Philippines. Cai caught the transparent squid in a light beam, turning it to gold.
Watching You Watching Them by Alex Badyaev, Russia/US – winner of the Urban Wildlife category

Cordilleran flycatchers usually nest in crevices and on canyon shelves. However, this pair picked this remote research cabin in Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front instead – and happened to be the exact species being studied by biologists there. So as not to disturb them, Badyaev hid his camera behind a large piece of bark on an ancient tree leaning against the cabin and operated the set-up remotely. He captured his shot as the female paused to check on her four nestlings, recording his observations behind her.
Etna’s River Of Fire by Luciano Gaudenzio, Italy – winner of the Earth’s Environments category

To witness lava flowing on the slope of Mount Etna, Gaudenzio and his colleagues trekked for several hours up the north side of the volcano. Luciano describes the scene as “hypnotic”, the vent resembling “an open wound on the rough and wrinkled skin of a huge dinosaur”. Taken in 2017, he had been on the nearby island of Stromboli to photograph eruptions there when he heard news of the new vent on Europe’s largest volcano, and took the very next ferry over in the hope of getting his shot.
Show Business by Kirsten Luce, US – winner of the Wildlife Photojournalism: Single Image category

Luce has spent several years reporting on animal exploitation and abuse, but says this is the most symbolically shocking scene she has photographed. It shows a muzzled polar bear performing in the Circus On Ice in Russia, reportedly the only known circus to use the animals. The polar bear is one of four females, reportedly captured in Russia’s Franz Josef Land when they were two years old – they were “abandoned”, the trainer reportedly said – and still performing 18 years later.
Backroom Business by Paul Hilton, UK/Australia – winner of the Wildlife Photojournalist Story Award

This image was one of a series which won Hilton the photojournalist story prize. It shows a young pig-tailed macaque chained to a wooden cage in Bali’s bird market, Indonesia. Having convinced the trader he was interested in buying the monkey, Hilton was able to take the photograph in the dark backroom.
Eleonora’s Gift by Alberto Fantoni, Italy – winner of the Rising Star Portfolio award

This photo shows a male Eleonora’s falcon bringing his mate food – a small bird, probably a lark – on the steep cliffs of a Sardinian island. Fantoni was watching from a hide on San Pietro Island, photographing the adults on their cliff-top perch. Despite feeding his mate, the male bird always seemed reluctant to give up his catch without a struggle, the photographer said.
The Last Bite by Ripan Biswas, India – winner of the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year Portfolio award

These are two ferocious predators – a giant riverine tiger beetle and a weaver ant – the Natural History Museum says, and they don’t often meet. These two were captured on a dry riverbed in the Buxa Tiger Reserve, in West Bengal, India, by Biswas as he lay on the sand. “The beetle kept pulling at the ant’s leg, trying to rid itself of the ant’s grip, but it couldn’t quite reach its head,” he said.
The Embrace by Sergey Gorshkov, Russia – winner of the Animals In Their Environment category and the overall grand title winner

This beautiful image was taken in the the Land of the Leopard National Park, in the Russian Far East. The population is threatened by poaching and logging, which also impacts their prey but recent camera-trap surveys are encouraging, the Natural History Museum says, indicating a population of between 500 and 600. Gorshkov said he knew his chances of photographing one of the creatures were slim, but he was determined. He installed his first proper camera trap in January 2019, and captured this winning image in the November.
The Fox That Got The Goose by Liina Heikkinen, Finland – winner of the 15-17 category and young wildlife photographer of the year

Liina was inspired to take this picture after hearing about a large fox family living in the city suburbs on the island of Lehtisaari, Helsinki. She spent a day with her father watching the two adults and their six cubs, with the vixen arriving with this abarnacle goose in the evening. After a fight between the cubs, this one was victorious, dragging the bird away and attempting to eat it while blocking access to its hungry siblings.
Winning images will be showcased at the Natural History Museum from 16 October, with safety measures in place due to coronavirus restrictions, before touring across the UK and internationally