Doctor warns, Losing the sense of smell can be the new hidden symptom of coronavirus

Some of the most persistent symptoms of coronavirus that have been agreed upon widely are persistent cough, high fever, and shortness of breath. Sometimes anxiety and confusion are also a prevailing symptom in people. A team of doctors in Britain informed that there is a possibility of anosmia in corona virus-positive patients. Anosmia is a condition of losing in which a person loses the sense of smell. Doctors warned the people experiencing Anosmia to self isolate as they could be the carriers of Covid-19.

WHO experts said that there is no confirmation yet of losing a sense of smell and taste, but tests are still being conducted. Hopkins, the president of ENT UK, said she observed a huge rise in Anosmia in patients across the world. Hopkins has created reports from China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran, they wrote, “significant numbers of patients with a proven covid-19 infection have developed anosmia/hyposmia,” In Germany, there are two-thirds coronavirus confirmed cases have shown the symptoms of Anosmia. In South Korea, they reported, “30 percent of patients testing positive have had anosmia as their major presenting symptom in otherwise mild cases.”

“This week, I saw nine patients that lost their sense of smell, which is unheard of in my practice,” said Hopkins. “They were almost all under 40, and they were all told not to self-isolate.”

Hyposmia and Anosmia are linked with respiratory infections. The virus has seen to damage the olfactory bulbs that are responsible for the sense of smell. She also presented a report saying that people are advised to self-isolate in case of experiencing any obvious symptoms but they can be still the carrier of the virus when they are not experiencing the symptoms.

The lack of awareness allows these people to carry on,” she added. “This potentially gives us an opportunity to capture some of those people who are silent spreaders of disease. The patients I’m seeing haven’t had a cough or fever at all.”

Anosmia, in particular, has been seen in patients ultimately testing positive for the coronavirus with no other symptoms,” the American Academy of Otolaryngology wrote. “We propose that these symptoms be added to the list of screening tools for possible covid-19 infection.”

After seeing the online article about Anosmia as a symptom of coronavirus many Covid-19 positive people said that they have or are also experiencing the same.

Studies are still being conducted and WHO has not declared Anosmia as a confirmed symptom of Coronavirus.