Coronavirus patients, doctors seem to be temporarily losing their sense of taste and smell -- here's

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Coronavirus patients, doctors seem to be temporarily losing their sense of taste and smell — here’s why

As COVID-19 continues to spread, now topping 370,000 cases worldwide, mentions of a previously unknown symptom of COVID-19 — loss of smell — are gaining traction. “Haven’t been able to smell anything for the last 4 days,” tweeted Rudy Gobert, a player of the Utah Jazz who was the first NBA player to test positive for the coronavirus 11 days ago. “Anyone experiencing the same thing?

According to a paper published Friday by Claire Hopkins, PhD, a professor of rhinology at King’s College London, Gobert is far from alone. “There have been a rapidly growing number of reports of a significant increase in the number of patients presenting with anosmia [loss of smell] in the absence of other symptoms,” Hopkins writes in the paper, published by UK ENT (a medical society of ear nose and throat doctors). “This has been widely shared on medical discussion boards by surgeons from all regions...” Hopkins adds that while early warnings did not mention anosmia as a symptom of the virus, many countries are now reporting it in their patients, including South Korea, China and Italy. In Germany, doctors are reporting than “2 in 3 confirmed cases” of COVID-19 present with anosmia.

Not everyone is ready to declare loss of smell and taste a symptom of COVID-19 at this point. At a press conference Monday morning, the World Health Organization said it had yet to verify the theory. “We've seen quite a few reports about people in the early stages of the disease [that] may lose the sense of smell, may lose the sense of taste," said Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, part of the WHO's health emergencies program. "But this is something that we need to look into to really capture if this is one of the signs and symptoms of COVID-19."

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While more research is needed to determine exactly how common it is to experience loss of smell and taste, Hopkins notes that most people with those symptoms had few others, meaning they could be unknowingly passing COVID-19 on. “There is potential that if any adult with anosmia but no other symptoms was asked to self isolate for seven days, in addition to the current symptom criteria used to trigger quarantine, we might be able to reduce the number of otherwise asymptomatic individuals who continue to act as vectors,” Hopkins writes in the paper. “It will also be an important trigger for healthcare personnel to employ full PPE [personal protective equipment]...”

(snip)

Hopkins says the symptoms were surprising given that COVID-19 does not seem to produce “nasal blockage or runny nose,” but those aren’t necessarily required to hinder those senses. William Schaffner, PhD, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, has one theory. “This [has to do with] an area back behind the nose where the virus lurks,” says Schaffner. “So I would think this has to do with some sort of local inflammatory response.”

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/coronavirus-patients-doctors-seem-to-be-temporarily-losing-their-sense-of-taste-and-smell-heres-why-213029665.html