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Comment
. 2020 May 11;91(2):230-231.
doi: 10.23750/abm.v91i2.9524.

Smell and taste dysfunction during the COVID-19 outbreak: a preliminary report

Matteo Gelardi  1 , Eleonora Trecca  2 , Michele Cassano  3 , Giorgio Ciprandi  4
Affiliations
Comment

Smell and taste dysfunction during the COVID-19 outbreak: a preliminary report

Matteo Gelardi et al. Acta Biomed. .

Abstract

In late December 2019, in Wuhan (China), health authorities reported several clusters of pneumo- nia of unknown cause, subsequently attributed to a novel coronavirus, identified as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus 2. Anosmia and dysgeusia have been reported as particular symptoms.4,5 Notably, these sensory symptoms seem to have a peculiar trend, such as usually precede the onset of respiratory symp- toms. So, they have been defined as "sentinel" symptoms. We presented a series of COVID-19 patients. Anos- mia and dysgeusia frequently preceded respiratory complaints. Anosmia and dysgeusia seem to be short-lived and self-resolving in COVID-19, thus a neurotoxic effect swiftly disappearing and/or cytopathic damage could be hypothesized similarly to other viral infections.

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Conflict of interest statement

Each author declares that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g. consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangement etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article

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