Adding a smell test to temperature checks would likely raise COVID-19 screening accuracy, according to a new report.
Temperature checks may not be effective in identifying asymptomatic spreaders among nursing home staff, visitors and vendors. Infections without a fever, the use of fever-reducing drugs, and other fever-causing illnesses can interfere with accuracy. Furthermore, no-touch devices — such as infrared thermometer guns — are “not effective” when used as the only means of detecting illness, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
A loss-of-smell test may help solve this problem by catching more people with COVID-19 symptoms, physicians tell STAT. Smell loss (anosmia) has been established as a consistent and very early symptom of COVID-19. In fact, one recent study found that patients with COVID-19 were 27 times more likely than patients with other illnesses to have smell loss, but only about 3% more likely to have a fever, the medical news outlet reported. In addition, smell and taste loss may be ten times more likely in COVID-19 infections than in other causes of infection, according to a study from UC San Diego Health. Plus, many people don’t immediately develop a fever when they contract COVID-19.
Since some people don’t recognize when their sense of smell is gone, a sniff test may be a better option than relying on self reporting, researcher Danielle Reed told STAT. Reed, associate director of Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, suggested the use of phenyl-ethyl alcohol on three swabs. One swab would be doused in the chemical, one would have less saturation and one would have none. This could help to weed out varying degrees of smell loss and false claims, she said. Identifying scents on a scratch-and-sniff card is another option, Reed added.
