Bloomberg posted; Smell-Loss Survey Suggests Covid Widespread in Health Workers

About two-thirds of the London National Health Service staffers surveyed reported diminished ability to taste or smell — one of the prominent, early symptoms of Covid-19 — just weeks after the coronavirus arrived in the U.K., according to research published Thursday in The Lancet Microbe journal.

Health-care professionals on the front lines are far more likely to contract the virus compared with individuals in the general community, earlier studies have found. Yet it’s unclear how many NHS staff have contracted the virus as testing has been limited. The high rate of the loss of smell, called anosmia, suggests that a larger proportion may have been infected than previously thought.

“Some people get smell loss before other symptoms, or as the only symptom,” of Covid, said Carl Philpott, professor of rhinology at the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School, in an interview. “It has a sudden onset, so people really notice the difference.”

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