My cousin has lost her sense of smell and taste.

[Thehouseofmarvels]

My 21 year old cousin has lost her sense of smell and taste. Her colleague had the same thing two weeks earlier. They were working in a busy London coffee shop until last Monday.

My cousin told her parents but for a week they thought it was just a weird fluke. Today my Uncle saw on the news that this odd thing could mean that my cousin caught corona virus from her colleague.

My Uncle, this being a second family for him is 82 with serious health problems including a dodgy heart. My aunt is late fifties also with health issues. Hopefully he has not got Corona because it could kill him.

There has been a week where they were interacting with each other, trips to supermarket ect.

Please can people text their friends and family to warn them of this symptom? Especially if you know a person who lives with an elderly person! If my Aunt and Uncle had any idea they would have isolated my cousin much earlier. This is so important. If people know this they can isolate immediately that they loose these senses.

Telling friends and family about this sign could save lives.

I live with my parents and about the time my cousin would have got infected, I dreamed that my cousin got infected and that something terrible happened, I could not completely remember the dream when I woke up but I knew my cousin had it and that something awful happened too like someone died. I told my Mum but now I wish I had told my cousin, maybe she'd have looked up the symptoms.

I don't think I would notice if I lost those things. I think I'm very impressed by folk who do notice.

Loss of taste and sense of smell is a common symptom of many viruses though. My mum lost hers completely a few years ago with a virus and its never came back!
There does seem to be quite a varied range of symptoms with covid-19, not sure why they're still sticking to the cough/fever advice.
Assuming your cousin is an adult she really should have isolated from her parents anyway given their health issues. I haven't seen mine in 3 weeks because my mum is high risk.

Loss of taste and sense of smell is a common symptom of many viruses though.

Really?

Loss of taste and sense of smell is a common symptom of many viruses though.

Not usually with flu-like viruses though. It's been present in about 2/3 of self reported confirmed cases and generally the milder ones.

Loss of taste and sense of smell is a common symptom of many viruses though.

Very wide range. The problem with giving them all is that you'd half the country thinking they have CV. The two symptoms that are almost always present (unless asymptomatic) are the cough and intermittent fever.

Personally I agree that the smell/taste symptom should be highlighted because it seems a good indicator in milder cases which could otherwise easily be something else.

Cut and paste error. My 'really?' reply should be to this:

I don't think I would notice if I lost those things.

@BlueGheko

Sadly rents in London are so expensive it would have been hard for her to organise to leave home at this time, she's a student when not in the coffee shop so would have had to organise room mates ect. Unless you mean isolate with her own house? I can see what you mean about young people should leave home to isolate but can be hard in practice,

This happened to me on Friday. I've had a bit of a cold but I have never experienced a loss of taste and smell like this. I chopped an onion yesterday and four cloves of garlic. My eyes didn't water and I held the onion to my face and I could smell nothing, absolutely nothing. Today I had a sensation of tasting something different when I had a sherbet lemon sweet but this is the oddest feeling ever. I tasted nothing of my meal tonight and it was my favourite paprika chicken. I am so disappointed!!
I hadn't heard this may be a sign of corona. My 79 year old father has been living with me until yesterday as he had a fall and couldn't get upstairs in his house. He went home today but he's been here for three weeks and doesn't have a cold or anything.
Eight weeks ago he was extremely poorly with the worst flu and temp he has ever had to the point the doc was called out and I stayed with him for the week. He is convinced he had corona then as he genuinely thought he was going to die. The doc said he thought he could hear some rattle in his chest and diagnosed a chest infection.

Sorry 70 year old not 79.

'@BluebellsareBlue

I chatted with a nurse friend and she confirmed that health care professionals are watching out for this.

She said as a nurse she needed to tell me to urge my cousin and her parents not to leave the house and to get shopping delivered, according to the NHS guidelines she has been told about this.

While it could be just another virus my mate said they had to advise people not to have even the slightest risk of infecting anyone.

Perhaps you could talk with a medical professional and get advice on whether its ok to go out ect.

There zillions of pre2019 web pages on google about this, linked to colds, influenza, other respiratory ailments. (eg)

Search for lost sense of smell "influenza" to start finding them.

My hay fever causes me to lose smell and taste and it kicked in last week. If there's no illness, I wouldn't worry about it.

Doctors are calling for loss of smell ect to be listed as a symptom. I've had this too and never before.

I've heard from many sources that loss of sense of smell and taste are symptoms too OP - thank you for sharing.

I lost my sense of smell & taste 2 weeks ago. It has returned which is a shame because my meds are so bitter & I enjoyed the break. But after it returned I also read it was a new symptom so I’m keeping an eye on it. It’s on the Covid 19 symptom tracker app!

I now have a weird bubbly feeling in my chest. But I feel absolutely fine!!

I have been socially distancing and haven’t seen anyone for 2.5 weeks & I don’t intend on seeing anyone until the lockdown is over.

I had a flu like virus with breathlessness and total loss of smell and taste 6 weeks ago. It was either CV earlier than they said it was here (unlikely) or there is an identical virus goomg around. I think this is more likely and really worries me. If I haf what I had then I would assume for sure that it was CV and that I was immune. I honestly think there is a really.similar virus around.

I lose my sense of taste and smell with every single cough or cold that I get.

Thanks OP. I've been in for a couple of weeks anyway as doing loads of overtime (I work for Tesco operational support) so I will def not go out now. Wouldn't get the chance anyway really with the amount of contact we are getting. I'm helping out social media customer service on overtime but can see it far enough now, 3 times today I was told I was responsible for the death of someone. Really down about it.

I had a persistent cough and a feeling of wheeziness/tightness in my throat/chest and lost my sense of taste and smell. None of the symptoms were dreadful. No fever. Lasted about a week- 10 days. Still haven't recovered my sense of taste smell fully although they are slowly returning. No idea if it was coronavirus or not. Don't suppose I will ever know. DD had the same cough but nothing else. We self-isolated just incase. DH and two DS did not get it.

My teen dd has thus. Very odd. Mild cold symptoms and now no sense of taste or smell since about 5 days ago.

I personally know about 5 people who have had this exact symptom. And I know them well enough to know it’s never happened before the corona outbreak. Coincidence?

Every time I have a blocked nose I lose my sense of smell and taste