Abstract
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.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 295-298 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Rhinology |
Volume | 58 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2020 |
Keywords
- Anosmia
- COVID-19
- Epidemiology
- SARS-CoV-2