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This symptom can differentiate if you have the flu or corona
Loss of sense of smell and taste is considered one of the distinct and strange symptoms of corona disease. And yet it is present even when ill with the flu or a cold. So what's the difference anyway?
Tags- Corona
- Corona virus
- smell
Walla! health
Thursday, 20 August 2020, 07:40- Share on Facebook
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Undoubtedly one of the most bizarre phenomena brought about by the corona virus is loss of sense of smell. It now turns out that the odor loss that can accompany patients with covid-19 disease is unique and different from that of someone who has a cold or severe flu, so it can help doctors differentiate between the two.
Researchers from Europe whose study was published in the journal Rhinology found that when Covid-19 patients suffer from odor loss, it tends to be sudden and severe. In most cases they do not have a stuffy nose or runny nose - most people with coronary heart disease can still breathe freely.
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Why do corona patients lose their sense of taste and smell?
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Another thing that sets them apart is the complete loss of taste caused by the impairment of the sense of smell - which plays a large part in the ability to distinguish flavors. Corona patients who actually experienced loss of taste could not distinguish between bitter or sweet. Experts suspect that this is because the epidemic virus attacks nerve cells directly involved in the sense of smell and taste.
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Principal Researcher Professor Carl Philfott, from the University of the East of England, performed odor and taste tests on 30 volunteers: ten of them were in Corona, ten had severe colds and ten of them were healthy people with no cold or flu symptoms. Odor loss was much more significant in covid-19 patients. They were less able to detect odors, and they could not distinguish at all between bitter or sweet flavors.
You can test your sense of smell with the help of oranges, among other things. Girl smelling orange (Photo: shutterstock)"This is very exciting because it means odor and taste tests can be used to differentiate between covid-19 patients and people with colds or flu," said Prof. Pilfoot. He added that people can do odor and taste tests themselves at home using products like coffee, garlic, oranges or lemons and sugar. According to him, the senses of smell and taste return within a few weeks in most people who recover from the corona.
Why does corona impair the sense of taste and smell?
According to Professor Claire Hopkins, President of the British Rhinologists' Association and Prof. Normal Kumar, President of the British Association of Aging Physicians who issued a joint paper last April, loss of sense of smell after a viral illness is "one of the leading causes of olfactory impairment in adults". Viral diseases caused by a variety of viruses are responsible for about 40 percent of cases of olfactory damage.
"Viruses that cause colds of various kinds are known to cause olfactory damage and there are more than 200 known viruses that cause upper respiratory tract infections," the pair said. "Recognized viruses from the corona family are responsible for 10 to 15 percent of these cases, so it should not really surprise us that the new corona virus also causes anemia in infected people."
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