Scientists research link between coronavirus and loss of smell and taste

By Noemí G. Gómez

Madrid, May 2 (efe-epa).- An international team of researchers launched a study on Friday into the possible link between Covid-19 and loss of smell and taste.

More than 400 scientists from 43 countries have joined a consortium to try to find out how frequent these potential symptoms are.

The Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research has launched an online questionnaire, which has been translated into 28 languages, for people who have had the disease.

More than 2,000 people completed the anonymous survey on the first day, answering questions about their diagnosis, whether they could smell during their illness and if they have experienced any changes in specific tastes such as sweet, salty and sour.

The goal is for each participating country to collect a minimum of 113 surveys.

Paloma Rohlfs Domínguez, from the department of psychology and anthropology at Spain’s University of Extremadura, one of eight institutions participating in the country, told Efe that researchers were expecting to receive a much higher number of responses.

The questionnaire can be completed on the consortium’s website and takes around 15 minutes.

Its main objective is to find out how common it is for Covid-19 patients to lose their sense of smell or taste and understand why this happens.

“For science to advance, it is necessary to have data from the population,” Rohlfs said.