The two major symptoms of COVID-19 are a high temperature and/or continuous cough.
Other indicators, according to the World Health Organization, include pains and aches, blocked nose, fatigue, diarrhea, and sore throat.
However, many doctors in the UK are calling for an urgent addition to the list of symptoms: sudden loss of smell.
ENT UK, which represents ear, nose, and throat specialists, said that the inability to taste and smell may be the early symptom of coronavirus and can start within hours.
Some people do not show any symptoms and make a complete recovery without realizing they had contracted the infection. Because the immune systems of most healthy young adults can contain the virus within the nose, the infection can be prevented from spreading to the lungs.
ENT UK warns that some people with coronavirus may be spreading the disease to others as they don’t show any symptoms.
Prof. Nirmal Kumar, the president of ENT UK, said: “I have seen a huge increase in the number of patients attending my clinic with a sudden loss of smell.”
“It’s up to about four patients a week, mostly under 40 and with no other Covid-19 symptoms. I usually see no more than one a month.”
Prof. Kumar advises people with a sudden loss of smell or taste to self-isolate for at least seven days just in case they have contracted the infection.
However, medics are also raising the alarm as one of the treatments for hyposmia (partial loss of smell) or anosmia (complete loss of smell) is steroid tablets, which can reduce the inflammation that might be pressing on olfactory nerves.
ENT specialists fear people with ‘hidden coronavirus’ may find it more difficult to recover if they were prescribed steroids for their loss of smell.
In a statement to Public Health England, ENT UK said: “In Germany, it is reported that more than two in three confirmed cases have anosmia.
“And in South Korea, 30 per cent of patients testing positive for Covid-19 have had anosmia as their major presenting symptom.”
Dr. Tony Narula, former president of ENT UK, said: “Normally, when you get a cold or flu virus, you get a blocked nose and lose some smell because you can’t get air (which carries smells with it) into the nostrils.
“With Covid-19 it’s different. The virus seems to strike directly at the olfactory nerve at the roof of the nose, just between the eyes.
“One reason so many people are suffering is that this nerve is not covered in protective tissue, so the virus attacks it and causes inflammation which stops smell signals reaching the brain.”
Most coronavirus patients fully recover their smell after four or six weeks, said Dr. Narula.
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