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274282

Anosmia, a Hidden Sign for COVID-19? A Case Report and Literature Review

Article

Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

Subjects

-

Tags

Infectious diseases of the head and Neck region: Endemic infections and diseases specific to our area

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing viral pandemic that is actively affecting 210 countries worldwide. Anosmia has been previously reported anecdotally as an emerging symptom of the COVID-19 and only gained recognition as a symptom for COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later on in the pandemic. This case report highlights a case of isolated sudden onset of anosmia as a presenting symptom of COVID-19 and relevant literature review supporting the incidence of anosmia in COVID-19. This is a first case report of anosmia in COVID-19 occurring in pregnancy. A 30-year-old pregnant lady at 11 weeks of gestation presented with sudden onset of anosmia for one day with no other accompanying symptoms. She had just recovered from a mild cold a day prior to the development of anosmia. She had a history of travel by land to Singapore 14 days prior to onset of anosmia. There was no known close contact with a COVID-19 patient or attended any mass gatherings prior to development of her symptom. She underwent nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab sampling which was then tested using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method and confirmed infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Clinicians should be aware of anosmia as a presenting symptom of COVID-19 especially in the presence of risk factors such as travel to affected countries and having close contact with COVID-19 positive patients and must always adhere to infection control and prevention protocol.

DOI

10.21608/ejentas.2020.31805.1218

Keywords

anosmia, COVID-19, pandemic, Pregnancy, SARS-CoV-2

Authors

First Name

Karen

Last Name

Christelle

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Email

karenchristelle87@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

MARYAM

Last Name

MOHD ZULKIFLI

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Email

meccha1607@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-2413-5263

First Name

Nani

Last Name

Draman

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Email

drnani@usm.my

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

23

Article Issue

23

Related Issue

30031

Issue Date

2022-01-01

Receive Date

2020-06-04

Publish Date

2022-01-01

Page Start

1

Page End

8

Print ISSN

2090-0740

Online ISSN

2090-3405

Link

https://ejentas.journals.ekb.eg/article_274282.html

Detail API

https://ejentas.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=274282

Order

46

Type

Case report

Type Code

473

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Ear, Nose, Throat and Allied Sciences

Publication Link

https://ejentas.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

-

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023