Document Type : Editorial article

Author

Department of Surgery/Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, University of Anbar, Ramadi, Anbar, Iraq

Abstract

The COVID-19 infection is caused by SARS-CoV-2 and it is considered by the WHO as a pandemic disease since February 2020. It is still an evolving disease, with new symptoms being discovered as time progress. A peculiar and interesting symptoms that has been frequently investigated by researchers across the globe are anosmia (loss of smell) and ageusia (loss of taste), as some subjects complain of diminution in the sense of smell and taste. Moreover, these symptoms may be the only or first clinical findings of the disease. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to isolate at home the individuals with recent smell and taste abnormalities (STA) without any other features of COVID-19 to prevent the transmission of the infection to healthy people [1].

Keywords

Main Subjects

[1] L. A. Vaira, G. Salzano, G. Deiana, and G. De Riu. Anosmia and ageusia: common findings in covid-19 patients. Laryngoscope, 2020.
[2] C. Hopkins and N. Kumar. Loss of sense of smell as marker of covid-19 infection. ENT UK [https//www. entuk. org/sites/default/files/files/Loss sense smell as marker COVID. pdf] Date accessed, 26(3):2020, 2020.

[3] C. H. Yan, F. Faraji, D. P. Prajapati, C. E. Boone, and A. S. DeConde. Association of chemosensory dysfunction and covid19 in patients presenting with influenzalike symptoms. in International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology, 2020.
[4] C. Menni et al. Loss of smell and taste in combination with other symptoms is a strong predictor of covid-19
infection. medRxiv, 2020.
[5] J. R. Lechien et al. Olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions as a clinical presentation of mild-to-moderate forms of the coronavirus disease (covid-19): a multicenter european study. Eur. Arch. Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, pages
1{11, 2020.
[6] G. Zehender et al. Genomic characterisation and phylogenetic analysis of sarscov2 in italy. J. Med. Virol.,
2020.
[7] L. E. Wee et al. The role of self-reported olfactory and gustatory dysfunction as a screening criterion for
suspected covid-19. Eur. Arch. Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, pages 1-2, 2020.
[8] L. Mao et al. Neurologic manifestations of hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 in wuhan, china. JAMA Neurol., 2020.
[9] S. T. Moein, S. M. R. Hashemian, B. Mansourafshar, A. Khorram-Tousi, P. Tabarsi, and R. L. Doty. Smell
dysfunction: a biomarker for covid19. International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology, 2020.
[10] A. Giacomelli et al. Self-reported olfactory and taste disorders in patients with severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 infection: A cross-sectional study. Clin. Infect. Dis., 2020.
[11] S. H. R. Bagheri et al. Coincidence of covid-19 epidemic and olfactory dysfunction outbreak. medRxiv, 2020.
[12] P. Zhou et al. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature,
579(7798):270-273, 2020.
[13] J. Suliburska, G. Duda, and D. Pupek-Musialik. The influence of hypotensive drugs on the taste sensitivity in
patients with primary hypertension. Acta Pol Pharm, 69(1):121{127, 2012.
[14] D. M. Small and J. Prescott. Odor/taste integration and the perception of flavor. Exp. brain Res, 166(3-4):345-357, 2005.
[15] D. Brann, T. Tsukahara, C. Weinreb, D. W. Logan, and S. R. Datta. Non-neural expression of sars-cov-2 entry genes in the olfactory epithelium suggests mechanisms underlying anosmia in covid-19 patients. bioRxiv, 2020.