COVID-19 Patients Experiencing Loss Of Smell & Taste Are Recovering Faster Than Others

Researchers around the world are trying to crack the COVID-19 code to contain the number of cases of the novel coronavirus.

Recently, researchers had revealed that loss of smell and taste sensitivity is one of the symptoms for COVID-19, but not much research was done on the same.

Reuters

However, a recent study published in the journal International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology by researchers at UC San Diego confirm the strong association between the aforementioned sensory loss with COVID-19.

According to Carol Yan, MD, an otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon at UC San Diego Health, ¡°Based on our study, if you have smell and taste loss, you are more than 10 times more likely to have COVID-19 infection than other causes of infection. The most common first sign of a COVID-19 infection remains fever, but fatigue and loss of smell and taste follow as other very common initial symptoms.

She further added, ¡°We know COVID-19 is an extremely contagious virus. This study supports the need to be aware of smell and taste loss as early signs of COVID-19.¡±

The researchers looked at 1,480 patients with flu-like symptoms that looked like COVID-19 infections, who underwent testing at UC San Diego Health starting March 3 till March 29, 2020. Out of 1,480, 102 patients were tested positive for COVID-19.

Researchers took responses from 59 COVID-19 positive patients as well as 203 COVID-19 negative patients. While the loss of sensitivity was profound, people who faced these also had a high rate of recovery -- within two to four weeks.

Reuters

Yan said, "Our study not only showed that the high incidence of smell and taste is specific to COVID-19 infection but we fortunately also found that for the majority of people sensory recovery was generally rapid.

Among the COVID-19 patients with smell loss, more than 70 percent had reported improvement of smell at the time of the survey and of those who hadn't reported improvement, many had only been diagnosed recently.

What¡¯s even more astonishing is that the recovery of senses was in tandem with the recovery of the disease. Yan concluded, stating, ¡°It is our hope that with these findings other institutions will follow suit and not only list smell and taste loss as a symptom of COVID-19, but use it as a screening measure for the virus across the world.¡±