Losing Your Taste And Smell Could Be Symptoms Of Covid-19

Typical Symptoms of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are dry cough, fever and shortness of breath.

But foundings emerging from other countries and even from the UK says something about sudden loss of smell and in some cases, loss of taste as an early sign of the novel coronavirus infection.

Many have taken to social media to report smell loss having a connection with COVID-19 symptoms.

Though it has not been as an official symptom to look out for when you contract coronavirus. The status of this symptoms may change if reports on it continues to emerge.

Anosmia or hyposmia being loss of smell, can be caused by many factors.

Swelling in the nose and sinuses (such as chronic sinusitis), head injury, and nerve disorders may result one in losing one’s sense of smell and taste.

Just as SARS‐CoV-2 enters the host cell through its receptor called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) just like SARS-CoV.

On plain explanations, ACE2 is expressed on the cell surface of the human respiratory tract. And ACE2 is also present in the brain at lower levels

And the brain also interprets the sense of taste and smell in humans.

ACE2 being a protein and abundant in the nose may be succeptible to Coronavirus. The virus enters the nose through this protein and it may cause temporary damage to the smell nerves.

Nonetheless, this damage is not permanent and it gets better within one to two weeks after the onset of the disease.