Is Loss Of Smell And Taste A Symptom Of COVID-19? Doctors Want To Find Out

Three weeks ago, Washington, D.C., resident Rebecca Read Medrano started feeling unwell. She had a dry cough, fatigue, nausea and terrible stomach pains that had her bending over.

There was one more symptom, and it was a bit odd. Medrano had largely lost her sense of taste. "My cousin was cooking and everything he made tasted weird," she recalls.

Medrano, 71, felt bad enough to go to her doctor for various tests, including testing for the coronavirus. Though she didn't have a fever – considered a classic symptom of COVID-19 – she was concerned because her husband has a medical condition that puts him at higher risk of infection.

Last Saturday night, the results came back: She was positive.

Medrano's case may not be just a fluke.

Doctors from Italy to China to South Korea to the U.S. are reporting cases where a loss of the sense of taste and the sense of smell, in particular, has been seen in patients who later tested positive for the coronavirus.

"The reason why the alarm bells were going off is that we're all starting to see this, especially in parts of the United States with the most cases of COVID-19," says Dr. Rachel Kaye, an assistant professor