A growing number of doctors suspect that for many patients, the first symptom of COVID-19 infection — before a cough or fever — could be losing your sense of taste, smell, or both.
They are two of the most unusual symptoms of corona virus disease.
A lot of people who were infected by the contagious disease have observed that they lost their sense of taste and smell even the ones with very foul odor.
Others claimed that all the food they have eaten were all bland.
Rudy Gobert, the guy in the NBA who was first to test positive tweeted about his lack of smell and taste as well.
In South Korea, where testing has been widespread, 30% of 2,000 patients who tested positive experienced lost of sense of smell as their major presenting symptom although these were mild cases.
Whereas in the areas of Italy which is now the most badly affected by the virus, doctors say they have concluded that loss of taste and smell is a sign that a person who otherwise seems healthy is in fact carrying the virus and may be spreading it to others.
Though data is still limited, nose and throat doctors are calling on adults who lose their senses of smell and taste to isolate themselves for seven days, even if they have no other symptoms, to slow the disease’s spread.
“We really want to raise awareness that this is a sign of infection and that anyone who develops loss of sense of smell should self-isolate,” Prof. Claire Hopkins, president of the British Rhinological Society, wrote in an email.
“It could contribute to slowing transmission and save lives,” he added.
