Items

• 
  2017-03-19

  Sweet Smell of Peroxide

  You could not walk into any establishment last year without the delightful smell of disinfectant and cleaning products entering your nostrils. When I worked at Aldi and Lowes last year, the cleaning products sold out in two weeks at the start of the pandemic. The lack of these products became so bad that stores across the country had to regulate home many products consumers could buy at a time. The regulation for disinfecting the stores I worked at were in 30 minute intervals. Shopping carts, door knobs, flat surfaces, and bathrooms were all expected to be disinfected on a continuous loop. Although I agreed that these procedures were necessary, they products were used eventually caused me to develop anosmia. Today, my current job still has a huge supply of disinfectant wipes stocked up underneath the kitchen counter. This sight bewilders me because I never would have thought two years ago that having Lysol and wipes on hand would be seen as necessary now in our present future. To this day, I still cannot smell disinfectants, perfumes, and other fragrances to their entirety. I honestly see this as a blessing and curse due to past experiences with both strong aromas and odors.
• 
  2020-05-12

  Smell and taste disorders during COVID‐19 outbreak: Cross‐sectional study on 355 patients, Dell’Era, Valeria ; Farri, Filippo ; Garzaro, Giacomo ; Gatto, Miriam ; Aluffi Valletti, Paolo ; Garzaro, Massimiliano, 2020 (Hoboken, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Head & neck, 2020-07, Vol.42 (7), p.1591-1596).

  2. Description: Among the most commonly observed effects of Covid-19 on patients are deteriorations (temporary or permanent) of taste and smell (Dell’Era et al. 2020, p. 1591). During the Italian Covid-19 outbreak in 2020, Novara University Hospital conducted a cross-sectional study examining the extent of smell-and-taste related disorders among patients confirmed to have contracted the virus. Results from the study suggest that an overwhelming share of patients experience sharp alterations in both senses, the severity of which differs from subject to subject. While extreme symptoms disappeared a fortnight after subjects participated in the study, a portion of respondents reported lingering sensory effects resulting from the virus (Dell’Era et al. 2020, pp. 1591-96).
• 
  2020-07-05

  Broadway and a Sense of Smell

  This story discusses the importance of the little known symptom of "anosmia" in screening for COVID-19, and specifically how this theater loving clinician came to realize that this was not a symptom to be overlooked.