Gene therapy has allowed several children born with inherited deafness to hear. A small study published Wednesday documents significantly restored hearing in five of six kids treated in China.
The children were part of two experimental groups in China and the US, who were all born with a gene mutation that blocked production of a protein needed for hearing.
"It's the first time hearing has been restored in a child — really in a human being — for a hereditary type of hearing loss," Dr. John Germiller of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia told CBS News.