Published in:
01-08-2020 | SARS-CoV-2 | Concise Research Report
Self-Reported Loss of Smell and Taste in SARS-CoV-2 Patients: Primary Care Data to Guide Future Early Detection Strategies
Authors:
Benoit Tudrej, MD, PhD, Paul Sebo, MD, MSc, Julie Lourdaux, MD, Clara Cuzin, Martin Floquet, Dagmar M. Haller, MD, PhD, Hubert Maisonneuve, MD, M.Ed
Published in:
Journal of General Internal Medicine
|
Issue 8/2020
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Excerpt
While initial reports did not highlight such symptoms, recent data from several countries suggest that SARS-CoV-2-positive inpatients experienced loss of smell and/or taste.
1, 2 In a retrospective web-based study of outpatients who had attended one of three emerging diseases center in France, the combination of hyposmia and hypogeusia had moderate sensitivity (42%) and high specificity (95%) for the identification of SARS-CoV-2-positive patients.
2 While loss of smell or taste could be a key symptom to guide early identification of new cases in primary care, the extent to which participants in this study were representative of primary care patients is unclear. To address this limitation, we conducted a study involving primary care patients in France. …
