Spotlight on America: Doctors raising red flags about new coronavirus symptoms

WASHINGTON (SBG) - An increasing number of doctors and patients are raising a red flag about new coronavirus symptoms. Research now suggests the disease causes a much wider range of symptoms than previously thought.

For the first time in two weeks, Deborah Napier got a brief sense of what life was like before she was diagnosed with coronavirus -- she could smell what she was cooking. She first noticed something was wrong when she was making dinner last month.

"I immediately called my doctor. They thought perhaps I had polyps or benign tumors in my nasal cavity."

Because she was exposed to people showing more classic coronavirus symptoms like fever and cough, her doctor ordered a test. The results were positive for COVID-19. Her niece also tested positive.

Research from scientists at King's College London found almost 60 percent (59%) of patients -- confirmed positive for COVID-19 — reported losing their sense of smell and taste.

Dr. James Denneny and the American Academy of Otolaryngology recently surveyed more than 200 COVID-19 patients -- more than a quarter (26%) say the loss of smell was their first symptom of the disease.

"I think that's a significant number in my mind. I'm hoping this would be added because we're seeing it in reports not only in the United States but worldwide. If I was one of the people with that symptom I would want to be tested."

Studies from South Korea, China, Italy and Germany all found a reduced sense of smell is a marker of coronavirus.

Dr. Denneny says like the common cold, coronavirus can damage the nerve endings which live in the nose, temporarily impairing the ability to smell.

"Some are complete loss of smell and others would be a partial loss of smell - a lot of people then associated some taste dysfunction because smell and taste are linked in many ways."

Other symptoms are also emerging including pink eye or conjunctivitis and digestive problems. But national and local CDC health experts say it's too soon to start testing more people who don't have established symptoms.

But more doctors and patients say it's important for people to know not everyone with the disease has the same symptoms.

And the director of the US CDC says the latest data continues to show one in four people with coronavirus may have no symptoms *at all* but they're still carrying the virus and capable of transmitting it.