Losing your sense of smell could be a sign of COVID-19

Tuesday, March 24, 2020 - 07:10 in Psychology & Sociology

While identifying a warning sign that would indicate COVID-19 would be extremely useful, doctors and researchers are still cautious. (Pexels/)Over the weekend, anecdotal reports from researchers and doctors (and even high-profile ballers) around the world noted a strange connection between the sense of smell and affliction with COVID-19. Some of those infected with the novel coronavirus seem to lose their sense of smell entirely; in many cases this happens in the days leading up to more intense symptoms like fever and cough. Researchers think this condition, known in the medical world as anosmia (or loss of the ability to smell), could be a beacon for diagnosis. While identifying a warning sign that would indicate COVID-19 would be extremely useful, doctors and researchers are still cautious. Anecdotal reports, even a lot of them don’t always mean that something is a reliable diagnostic criteria. “There is lots of uncertainty,” says Sanne Boesveldt,...

Read the whole article on PopSci

More from PopSci

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net