Incidence of Anosmia among Covid 19 patients in India

The pandemic COVID-19 has relentlessly caused havoc to human life since its outbreak in December 2019. The disease has been a challenge for all. The clinical manifestations of Covid-19 ranges from no symptoms at all to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. Anosmia being one of the important clinical features of COVID-19 has always been overlooked by the Indian population. This formed the background for this study. Aim To identify the incidence of anosmia reported in COVID- 19 patients in India. Materials and Methods Literature search was carried out from January 2020 to March 2021 in databases like PUBMED and Google Scholar using the key words ANOSMIA, HYPOSMIA and OLFACTORY DYSFUNCTION in conjunction with COVID-19, SARS-COV-2, and CORONAVIRUS. Boolean operators were used to narrow and broaden the search. The search yielded sixteen eligible articles. Result The scrutiny of the 16 articles revealed an incidence range of anosmia from 9.2% to 82% and an average anosmia incidence rate of 30.19%. The cumulative incidence rate of anosmia in those studies where objective analysis was done is 52.2% and 16.4% for subjective analysis. Discussion The prevalence of anosmia in Indian population is found to be much lesser than that reported by European countries due to ethnicity or negligence. Objective evaluation of anosmia in COVID-19 patients increases the incidence of anosmia drastically. Hence objective evaluations such as UPIST, SNIFFING STICK test, etc. is to be promoted. This study also Emphasises the lack of common gold standard testing for olfaction like vision and hearing.

Automated summary

The incidence rate of anosmia reported in COVID-19 patients in India is 30.19%, with objective evaluation significantly increasing this rate. The prevalence of anosmia in the Indian population is lower than that in European countries, which may be due to ethnicity or negligence. It is necessary to promote objective evaluation methods to improve the accuracy of anosmia detection in COVID-19 patients.