Author: Merentsova Anastasia
Translator: Uspanova Ainura
Copy editors: Kigbayeva Kamila, Issabayeva Madina
It is known that the main symptoms of coronavirus infection are fever, dry cough, fatigue, anosmia (loss of smell), loss of taste, sore throat and chest, often diarrhea. But the problem is that most infected people have an asymptomatic course of the disease, which contributes to an even greater spread of infection.
In about 20 percent of cases when the infection progresses, it causes severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and multiple organ failure. Despite the serious effect on the lungs, there is growing evidence that the virus is also able to infect other organs and systems of the body.
A new study by doctors from the USA and Italy, published in the journal JAMA Network, proved that SARS-CoV-2 is also a neurotropic virus. It causes changes in the brain that lead to anosmia (loss of smell). So, scientists described the case of a 25-year-old patient from Italy who did not have a history of injuries and chronic diseases, who became ill with Covid-19 and lost her sense of smell. After a series of instrumental studies, brain MRI showed a hyper intensive area in the cortex of the right gyrus of the right hemisphere, as well as a less pronounced hyper intensive area in the olfactory bulb. Repeated MRI, performed after 28 days, no longer showed any deviations from the norm, which indicates a temporary olfactory dysfunction.
According to the authors, the loss of smell is the result of the passage of viral particles through the respiratory tract, penetrating the brain through the olfactory pathway. Anosmia is an early symptom of COVID-19, and although the prevalence of this symptom is only 65%, knowledge of this fact will help not to start the disease and prevent the wide spread of infection among contact persons.
Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/
