
Pioneering gene therapy restores baby's hearing
Eighteen-month-old Opal can now hear sounds as soft as a whisper.
A British girl born deaf can now hear unaided after a ground-breaking gene-therapy treatment. Opal Sandy was treated shortly before her first birthday and six months on can hear sounds as soft as a whisper and is starting to talk. Opal is part of a trial recruiting patients in the UK, US and Spain.
Also in the programme: the advocacy group Human Rights Watch has accused Sudan's Rapid Support Force of possible genocide in the city of El Geneina in Darfur; and US president Joe Biden has issued his strongest warning yet to Israel against launching a full-scale military assault on Rafah in southern Gaza.
Picture: Opal Sandy, who has received a ground-breaking so that she can hear unaided, reads with her mother Jo at their home. Credit: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)
Last on
Featured
.
Broadcast
- Thu 9 May 202413:06GMTBBC World Service
Podcast
![]()
Newshour
Interviews, news and analysis of the day’s global events.
