The coronavirus has been associated with a loss of smell and taste. But the loss of these senses is different than what’s experienced when someone has a bad cold or a flu, experts recently said.
What’s happening:
Researchers recently said that COVID-19 patients have severe smell and taste loss, which comes on suddenly.
- The researchers — who published their findings in the journal Rhinology — said patients suffer a “true” loss, where they can’t tell the difference between something bitter or sweet.
- The loss of smell and taste isn’t due to stuffy or runny noses, either.
- Researchers said this is likely because the coronavirus impacts the nerve cells connected to smell and taste.
How researchers found this:
Researchers conducted smell and taste tests on 30 volunteers
- 10 of these patients had COVID-19, 10 had bad colds and 10 were healthy people without symptoms.
The COVID-19 patients had a much bigger smell loss than others. They couldn’t identify smells or determine whether something was bitter or sweet, according to BBC News.
Professor Carl Philpott, from the University of East Anglia, said the coronavirus creates a different loss of smell and taste than other colds.
There really do appear to be distinguishing features that set the coronavirus apart from other respiratory viruses. This is very exciting because it means that smell and taste tests could be used to discriminate between COVID-19 patients and people with a regular cold or flu.”