Situation Report of COVID-19 in the ASEAN Region - 12 September 2022

Global Update

• Worldwide, there have been over 615 million cases and over 6 million deaths attributed to COVID-19. Research Update

• An observational study on Sociodemographic Characteristics and Comorbidities of Patients with Long COVID and Persistent Olfactory Dysfunction of 64% had a persistently impaired sense of smell out of the 219 unvaccinated long-COVID patients with neurologic symptoms in the Amazon.5 Of the 219 patients, 139 (63.5%) were diagnosed as having some degree of chronic olfactory dysfunction (anosmia/loss of smell or hyposmia/decreased sense of smell).5 Patients with an impaired sense of smell had longCOVID symptoms for significantly longer than those with normal olfaction (average days, 242.7 vs 221.0), and a higher proportion had neurologic symptoms for more than 6 months (79.1% vs 63.8%).5 The authors noted that most COVID-related olfactory disorders last only 2 or 3 weeks.5 But chronic olfactory disorders, they said, have been linked to disturbed eating patterns, depression, and reduced quality of life and can lead to difficulties with cooking, health and nutrition maintenance, personal hygiene, and social relationships.5 They described the reduced ability to smell as "one of the most important long-term neurologic symptoms of COVID-19, with the highest prevalence seen among women, adults, and outpatients.5 Patients with olfactory dysfunction may experience persistent severe hyposmia or anosmia more than 1 year from the onset of symptoms, suggesting the possibility of the condition becoming a permanent sequela.5 "