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Today the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced that anosmia, the loss of taste and smell, has been added to list of official COVID-19 symptoms.
Prof William Keevil, Professor of Environmental Healthcare, University of Southampton, said:
“Putting anosmia on the official list of symptoms is a very sensible decision by the Government. Perhaps not surprisingly, anosmia is a frequent symptom in patients with other respiratory virus infections. I’m sure, like me, many people have anecdotal evidence for this symptom among friends and family and increasingly we also have more robust scientific evidence of this too. In South Korea 30% of cases with mild symptoms also had anosmia, and there are similar reports from other countries. Now evidence is also accumulating from various countries that asymptomatic patients with no other symptoms still experience anosmia. This makes it a very useful, potentially very important, marker for patient diagnosis and self-isolation of asymptomatic cases to help reduce the spread of this nasty virus.”
Prof Jane Parker, Director of the Flavour Centre at the University of Reading, said:
“I am very pleased that anosmia is now a recognised symptom of Covid-19 and that it can now be used as an official early warning signal and cue to self-isolate. The evidence has been accumulating over the past 2-3 months and there is little doubt that the two are related. Initially the evidence was anecdotal but large-scale surveys such as those from King’s College London and the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research (GCCR) have shown a strong link, and this is backed up by many more detailed clinical studies.
“It’s a very sensible move, as those that have experienced a sudden loss of smell have until now been advised to continue to work, and have probably been unwittingly spreading the virus. Now they qualify for testing and should self-isolate, to prevent further spread of the disease. In many cases sudden loss of smell is an early warning signal and other symptoms of Covid-19 follow within days.
“Loss of smell occurs with other respiratory viruses, and there is some debate as to whether the mechanisms are similar in Covid-19. It certainly seems to be more prevalent in Covid-19, and the onset is very sudden. The interesting thing from the GCCR study published recently, is that sudden loss of smell is also associated with loss of taste (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami) which is different from other respiratory infections.”
Prof Carl Philpott, Professor of Rhinology & Olfactology, Norwich Medical School, UEA, said:
“The announcement that the CMOs have now recognised smell and taste disturbances is extremely welcome, albeit much later than other European counterparts and at least 2 weeks after the WHO added it to their list. This will hopefully now be another measure by which the pandemic can be contained, especially as in some people it may be the only symptom or may precede other symptoms. This is particularly pertinent in healthcare workers where reports of smell and taste disturbances have been commonplace, meaning the transfer of infection from colleagues to each other and to uninfected patients will have been happening unchecked. There will also be a recognition that although many patients will recover these senses, the need for ongoing support will be faced by a minority in whom these sensory losses persist.”
All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink: www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19
Declared interests
Prof Jane Parker: Prof Parker does research with the charity Abscent and contributed to the calls for anosmia to be added to this list.
None others received.