KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — A sudden loss of smell and taste could be a Covid-19 symptom, even if no other symptoms like fever and cough are present, experts said.
Business Insider US reported UK rhinologists as saying that those suffering from anosmia or hyposmia, a sudden loss of smell, could be a “hidden carrier” of coronavirus.
A third of Covid-19 patients in South Korea, China, and Italy reported a loss of smell, according to ear, nose, and throat experts in the UK.
“In South Korea, where testing has been more widespread, 30 per cent of patients testing positive have had anosmia as their major presenting symptom in otherwise mild cases,” the president of the British Rhinological Society Professor, Clare Hopkins, and the president of the British Association of Otorhinolaryngology, professor Nirmal Kumar, were quoted saying.
“There have been a rapidly growing number of reports of a significant increase in the number of patients presenting with anosmia in the absence of other symptoms,” they added.
“Iran has reported a sudden increase in cases of isolated anosmia, and many colleagues from the US, France, and Northern Italy have the same experience.”
Professor Kumar reportedly said younger coronavirus patients, particularly, may only present loss of smell or taste, without the more commonly recognised symptoms of high fever and persistent cough.
“In young patients, they do not have any significant symptoms such as the cough and fever, but they may have just the loss of sense of smell and taste, which suggests that these viruses are lodging in the nose,” he was quoted saying.
