Israelis less likely than Canadians to lose taste, smell from COVID
Israelis with COVID-19 appear to be less likely to lose their sense of taste and/or smell than Canadians, a new study shows.
The report, published this month in Ear, Nose and Throat Journal, was conducted by doctors at Sheba Medical Center in Israel and St. Michael’s Hospital in Canada. The objective of the study was to compare the symptoms of people diagnosed with the virus in two distinct geographical areas.
Some 66.7% of Canadian patients reported chemosensory dysfunction – decreased or lost sense of smell and/ or decreased or lost sense of taste – compared to 34.4% of Israelis.
Specifically, 55.8% of Canadians and 30.2% of Israelis reported issues with their smell and 55.8% of Canadians vs 19.8% of Israelis said they had lost taste.
There are several potential reasons for this discrepancy, Daniella Daliyot, a nurse at Sheba Medical Center who was involved in the study, told The Jerusalem Post. Among them, she said, there may be geographic variation with respect to the virus and its mutations. While the more transmissible G614 strain of the virus was more dominant in Western countries at the time of the study, the D614 strain was more
prevalent in Asia.
In general, the study said, there have been lower rates of loss of taste and smell reported in Asia compared to Western countries.
The research was carried out using frontal, phone and digital questionnaires. Participants were asked to self-report their symptoms. All 350 patients, diagnosed with coronavirus between March 16 and August 19, 2020, were over the age of 18. Overall, 47% reported loss of taste and/or smell.
The majority recovered within four weeks.
“Although the prevalence of chemosensory deficit in COVID-19 was found to be similar to previously published reports, the prevalence can vary significantly across different geographical regions. Therefore, it is important to obtain regionally specific data so that the symptom of anosmia/dysgeusia can be used as a guide for screening for the clinical diagnosis of COVID-19,” the report concluded.
Anosmia is altered or lost smell. Dysgeusia is altered or lost taste.
Daliyot said that although this study was limited by the fact that it is based on self-reported data, she said it is a first step to determining differences between how the virus displays itself in different parts of the world.
“Here, we had a loss of smell and taste, but not like they did in Canada,” Daliyot said. “We need to check if there really is a connection to the geographic location.”