Presentation of new onset anosmia during the covid-19 pandemic

TY - JOUR

T1 - Presentation of new onset anosmia during the covid-19 pandemic

AU - Hopkins, Claire

AU - Surda, Pavol

AU - Nirmal Kumar, B.

PY - 2020/1/1

Y1 - 2020/1/1

N2 - Introduction: Anosmia has not been formally recognised as a symptom of COVID-19 infection. Growing anecdotal evidence suggests increasing incidence of cases of anosmia during the current pandemic, suggesting that COVID-19 may cause olfactory dysfunction. The objective was to characterise patients reporting new onset anosmia during the COVID-19 pandemic Methodology: Design: Survey of 2428 patients reporting new onset anosmia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Setting: Volunteer sample of patients seeking medical advice of recent onset self-diagnosed loss of sense of smell Results: 2428 surveys were completed within 7 days; 64% respondents were under 40. The majority of respondents reported onset of their anosmia in the last week. Of the cohort, 17% did not report any other symptom thought to be associated with COVID-19. In patients who reported other symptoms, 51% reported either cough or fever and therefore met current guidelines for self-isolation Conclusions: Anosmia is reported in conjunction with well-reported symptoms of coronas virus, but 1 in 6 patients with recent onset anosmia report this as an isolated symptom. This might help identify otherwise asymptomatic carriers of disease and trig-ger targeted testing. Further study with COVID-19 testing is required to identify the proportion of patients in whom new onset anosmia can be attributed to COVID-19.

AB - Introduction: Anosmia has not been formally recognised as a symptom of COVID-19 infection. Growing anecdotal evidence suggests increasing incidence of cases of anosmia during the current pandemic, suggesting that COVID-19 may cause olfactory dysfunction. The objective was to characterise patients reporting new onset anosmia during the COVID-19 pandemic Methodology: Design: Survey of 2428 patients reporting new onset anosmia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Setting: Volunteer sample of patients seeking medical advice of recent onset self-diagnosed loss of sense of smell Results: 2428 surveys were completed within 7 days; 64% respondents were under 40. The majority of respondents reported onset of their anosmia in the last week. Of the cohort, 17% did not report any other symptom thought to be associated with COVID-19. In patients who reported other symptoms, 51% reported either cough or fever and therefore met current guidelines for self-isolation Conclusions: Anosmia is reported in conjunction with well-reported symptoms of coronas virus, but 1 in 6 patients with recent onset anosmia report this as an isolated symptom. This might help identify otherwise asymptomatic carriers of disease and trig-ger targeted testing. Further study with COVID-19 testing is required to identify the proportion of patients in whom new onset anosmia can be attributed to COVID-19.

KW - Anosmia

KW - COVID-19

KW - Epidemiology

KW - SARS-CoV-2

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083781190&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.4193/Rhin20.116

DO - 10.4193/Rhin20.116

M3 - Article

C2 - 32277751

AN - SCOPUS:85083781190

SN - 0300-0729

VL - 58

SP - 295

EP - 298

JO - Rhinology

JF - Rhinology

IS - 3

ER -