Hearing loss globally due to ear infection is estimated to be 30 people in every 10,000. Around the world there is around 21,000 to 28,000 deaths due to complications from ear infections. These complications include brain abscesses and meningitis. Otitis externae peaks at age 7–12 years of age and around 10% of people has had it at least once in their lives.Cerumen impaction occurs in 1 out of every 10 children, 1 in every 20 adults and 1 in every 3 elderly citizens.Barotrauma occurs around 1 in every 1000 people.Of people presenting with ear pain, only 3% was diagnosed with eustachian tube dysfunction. History
Not much was known about ear pain and acute otitis media before the 17th century. It was a common phenomenon with no treatment. That changed when the otoscope was invented in the 1840s by Anton von Troeltsh in Germany. Another shift came with the invention of antibiotics. Before antibiotics was introduced there use to be a high rate of ear infections spreading to the bone around the ear, but that is now considered a rare complication. Society and culture
There was previously a strong tradition of treating acute otitis media with amoxicillin. One quote from the 1980s shows this sentiment by saying "any child with an earache has an acute amoxicillin deficiency". However, people started realizing that using antibiotics too much can cause bacteria to gain resistance. Increasing resistance makes antibiotics less effective.
This shift may be reflected in higher than normal mean corpuscular volume (MCV) values, an indicator of red blood cell size.This is not a pathological condition but may indicate a propensity toward iron deficiency anemia due to high red blood cell turnover. == References ==