Anosmia, a Hidden Sign for COVID-19? A Case Report and Literature Review | ||||
| Egyptian Journal of Ear, Nose, Throat and Allied Sciences | ||||
| Article 46, Volume 23, Issue 23, January 2022, Page 1-8 PDF (335.12 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Case report | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejentas.2020.31805.1218 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
Karen Christelle; MARYAM MOHD ZULKIFLI   ; Nani Draman
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| Universiti Sains Malaysia | ||||
| 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. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Anosmia; COVID-19; pandemic; pregnancy; SARS-CoV-2 | ||||
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