As evidence piles up documenting a sudden loss of smell and/or taste as a presenting symptom of COVID-19, the call to screen for these phenomena is growing, says a Medscape report. A number of new publications show a high proportion of people infected with COVID-19 report loss of smell and/or taste, with their authors adding to the clamour to recognise these symptoms as potentially indicative of the infection. In particular, there is a belief that these signs may be present in many with asymptomatic COVID-19, and therefore asking about them could be a way to prioritise people for initial testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the absence of other symptoms.
Anyone testing positive could then quarantine, and their contacts could be traced. Despite this, the report says, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has not listed loss of smell or taste as potential symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection. But the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now added "new loss of taste or smell" as a symptom on its COVID-19 information page.
American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) executive vice president and CEO Dr James C Denneny III, believes the symptoms may be an early warning signal. And there's no downside to checking for these, Denneny is quoted in the report as saying. "Given the fact that this doesn't require any surgical procedure, biopsy, or specific treatment, I think the upside of getting it early is great," he said. "The downside of using it as a symptom, and if someone doesn't turn out to have it, is virtually zero."
Dr Claire Hopkins president of the British Rhinological Society, and colleagues, writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, agrees. "Physicians evaluating patients with acute-onset loss of smell or taste, particularly in the context of a patent nasal airway, should have a high index of suspicion for concomitant SARS-CoV-2 infection." They also observe that this appears to occur, in contrast to other respiratory infections, "in the absence of nasal congestion or rhinorrhoea."
[link url="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/929116"]Full Medscape report[/link]
[link url="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30293-0/fulltext"]The Lancet Infectious Diseases correspondence[/link]