Introduction
Anosmia, and hyposmia, the inability to perceive smells and a reduced or
altered ability respectively, as well as taste perception alterations,
are occasionally associated with respiratory virus infection, including
the well known family of coronavirus1. Since
mid-February 2020, SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus initially identified
in late 2019 in China,2 spread worldwide. As the
infection was better characterized, main symptoms of fever, cough,
tiredness and difficulty breathing were well
characterized3. However several anecdotal case
reports,4,5 case series,6-8 and
surveys 9-13 suggested that a significant amount of
patients with suspected Sars-CoV-2 infection also developed
anosmia/hyposmia and/or taste alteration, and in a relevant amount of
patients, these were the first symptoms of COVID-19. Most of these
studies, however, base their results on presumptive or symptoms based
COVID-19 diagnosis. Only one study to date has assessed a population of
laboratory confirmed patients, performing quantitative smell assessment,
but without investigating taste.14
Limited knowledge is available on prevalence, severity and recovery time
of these disorders in SARS-CoV-2 patients.
The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and severity of
smell and taste disorders in a population of laboratory confirmed
SARS-CoV-2 patients. A secondary objective was to investigate the onset
and recovery time from the same symptoms.