Los Angeles: Researchers have reported the first empirical findings linking the loss of smell and taste in patients with COVID-19, a finding that may become a new clinical screening measure for the virus.
According to the study, published in the journal International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology, people with influenza-like symptoms, and a dysfunction of smell and taste, are strongly associated with COVID-19 infection. "Based on our study, if you have smell and taste loss, you are more than 10 times more likely to have COVID-19 infection than other causes of infection," said Carol Yan, an otolaryngologist and study co-author from the University of California San Diego in the US.