Anosmia (loss of smell), did I get the coronavirus?

pattismith

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@YippeeKi YOW !! @ShepherdK

it's your place if you think you may have got the corona.

You can describe what was your experience with it and why you think it could be the corona. Please give your age and your blood group.

I have anosmia for maybe 1 or 2 weeks now. I am 52 and my lung are very sensitive to infection (I was intoxicated chronically by formol when younger).

Anosmia is seen more and more in France since the coronavirus is here, without much symptoms, and the coronavirus is suspected as the trigger agent.

I sneezed very little, maybe once or twice a day, no pain, no fever.

At first, when I noticed my sense of smell was quickly going down, I thought it was the result of my SFN, but now that I am aware of the link with the coronavirus, I just wonder!

My blood group is O and so is my husband. Since this group showed more resistance to the virus in a chinese study, we may have had an asymptomatic infection?

A french study should be published soon they said.
 

pattismith

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We discovered new symptoms " By Peter-Philipp Schmitt - Updated on 16.03.2020-13: 56

Hendrik Streeck heads the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital Bonn.

German interview extract (google translation)

What new symptoms did you find?

Almost all infected people we interviewed, and this applies to a good two thirds, described a loss of smell and taste lasting several days. It goes so far that a mother could not smell the full diaper of her child. Others could no longer smell their shampoo, and food began to taste bland. We cannot yet tell exactly when these symptoms will appear, but we believe a little later in the infection.

How many infected people did you interview?

Certainly more than 100 infected, but not the very serious cases that are in the hospital.

How would you describe the typical Covid 19 patient?

The typical Covid 19 patient shows only mild symptoms. This is also the result of a Chinese study from the metropolis of Shenzhen, which found that 91 percent of those infected show only mild to moderate symptoms, with a dry, irritable cough, and possibly a fever. With us there was also the loss of smell and taste. Diarrhea also occurred in our infected people in 30 percent of the cases, which is more common than previously thought.
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Allegedly, the novel coronavirus also attacks other organs such as the liver and gastrointestinal tract?

Of course, it's stupid to always have to say: You don't know all of that yet. But unfortunately it is. What we do know: Sars-2 enters its host cell via the ACE-2 receptor. Many tissue cells have this receptor, including, for example, the testicles, which, it is said, could also be attacked. One can actually imagine this in individual cases, but there is no confirmed knowledge so far. In any case, we have not found the pathogen in the blood or plasma in any of the Covid 19 cases examined. The diarrhea suggests that the gastrointestinal tract is attacked.

How do you explain the low death rate in Germany compared to Italy, for example?

I'm not surprised at all. Because in Italy only the very difficult symptomatic cases were tested. The current study from Shenzhen, for example, also found that children infect the pathogen as often as adults, but they develop only mild or no symptoms. If one follows the study and assumes that 91 percent of Covid-19 only experience mild or moderate symptoms, the Italians initially focused only on the remaining nine percent. In addition, the dead are also subsequently tested on Sars-CoV-2. In China, too, the number of deaths rose sharply at the beginning, but not the number of infections, because one also concentrated there on the dead. Now it's the other way around because there is a lot more testing in China.
 

pattismith

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I have see on twitter that corona patient's sense of smell does eventually return. It's not permanent.
yes, this is what the german professor said in the interview I quoted just earlier.
Having SFN, I already have altered smell and taste sensations from time to time, but more likely weird taste or burning mouth.
I felt a bit strange during past ten days, lacking appetite, but I thought it could be from all the supplements I am taking since the pandemia started, or maybe just the fear to catch the virus because I'm working every days with public, and one of my collaborator had fever and bronchitis (she stopped working one week).
But then last week I realized things that usually smell very bad didn't bother me any longer, whereas other collaborators could smell it.... Again I thought maybe the effect of my SFN or all the supplements I take!

I hope to recover soon to that, it's a pity if I can't smell the perfume of the spring flowers that are just coming now!
 

valentinelynx

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That's very interesting about anosmia and Covid-19. Here in the US we'll likely remain ignorant for a long time about milder effects of infection, because testing is unavailable except in life-threatening cases or in those on the front lines, if they're lucky.

There's another thing that can cause anosmia that's less scary than Covid-19: allergic rhinitis. When I was a med student I volunteered to be the patient for a demonstration of a cranial nerve exam. I flunked the part testing the olfactory nerve: I couldn't smell the test-tube of coffee smell at all! Part of my illness onset was the sudden development of severe allergic rhinitis to all kinds of things, when I'd never been allergic to anything before. Given it is Spring: maybe you're having bad allergies this year? Although it would actually be a good thing to know you had contracted Covid-19 and put it behind you!
 

pattismith

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3,988
That's very interesting about anosmia and Covid-19. Here in the US we'll likely remain ignorant for a long time about milder effects of infection, because testing is unavailable except in life-threatening cases or in those on the front lines, if they're lucky.

There's another thing that can cause anosmia that's less scary than Covid-19: allergic rhinitis. When I was a med student I volunteered to be the patient for a demonstration of a cranial nerve exam. I flunked the part testing the olfactory nerve: I couldn't smell the test-tube of coffee smell at all! Part of my illness onset was the sudden development of severe allergic rhinitis to all kinds of things, when I'd never been allergic to anything before. Given it is Spring: maybe you're having bad allergies this year? Although it would actually be a good thing to know you had contracted Covid-19 and put it behind you!
I never had allergic rhinitis. I don't think I have that. I sneeze only once or twice a day since the onset of my anosmia. I wish we could have a serologic test to know if we got it or not, I hope it will be available soon!
I asked my GP about anosmia, he said that during the epidemic any isolated anosmia with no or little rhinitis can be considered as a covid-19 infection.
I'm working with public, so had no hope to avoid the virus, so it would be such a relief if it could be as simple as that for me and my husband....
I wish the corona won't make you too sick, crossed fingers for you all
 

pattismith

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I have lost more than 50% of my hearing in the last 10 days. Don't know if it will return.

One young american people reported hearing loss in one ear but I don't know if she recovered from it:

20-year-old with coronavirus reports experiencing ‘very different’ symptoms


March 23, 2020 | 2:55pm | Updated March 23, 2020 | 4:35pm

A 20-year-old American woman who tested positive for the novel coronavirus said she suffered symptoms that hadn’t previously been associated with the infection, including hearing loss.

Julia Buscaglia — who was staying in Italy when she first started showing symptoms — decided to share her story in a now-viral Twitter thread because “others are reporting very different experiences than mine,” she wrote.

https://nypost.com/2020/03/23/20-ye...reports-experiencing-very-different-symptoms/
 
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