Anosmia, a Hidden Sign for COVID-19? A Case Report and Literature Review

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing viral pandemic that is actively affecting 210 countries worldwide. Anosmia has been previously reported anecdotally as an emerging symptom of the COVID-19 and only gained recognition as a symptom for COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later on in the pandemic. This case report highlights a case of isolated sudden onset of anosmia as a presenting symptom of COVID-19 and relevant literature review supporting the incidence of anosmia in COVID-19. This is a first case report of anosmia in COVID-19 occurring in pregnancy. A 30-year-old pregnant lady at 11 weeks of gestation presented with sudden onset of anosmia for one day with no other accompanying symptoms. She had just recovered from a mild cold a day prior to the development of anosmia. She had a history of travel by land to Singapore 14 days prior to onset of anosmia. There was no known close contact with a COVID-19 patient or attended any mass gatherings prior to development of her symptom. She underwent nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab sampling which was then tested using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method and confirmed infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Clinicians should be aware of anosmia as a presenting symptom of COVID-19 especially in the presence of risk factors such as travel to affected countries and having close contact with COVID-19 positive patients and must always adhere to infection control and prevention protocol. © 2022, Egyptian Society of Ear Nose Throat and Allied Sciences. All rights reserved.

The Major Challenges Faced by Medical Lecturers in Teaching, Learning and Assessment during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology Study

Introduction: Online teaching, learning, and evaluation are inevitable to ensure the continuity of medical education delivery throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic. Based on medical lecturers' experiences during the COVID-19 movement control order (MCO), this study looked into the problems of implementing online teaching, learning, and assessment. Methods: During the COVID-19 MCO, a hermeneutic phenomenology study was conducted using reflective written exercises to explore the challenges faced by medical lecturers. The medical lecturers were given online open-ended questions via a Google form to help them reflect on their previous experiences. The reflective written comments were analysed by ATLAS.ti. Thematic analysis was performed for coding and categorizing the reflective comments into meaningful codes, categories, and themes. Results: A total of 29 medical lecturers responded to the open-ended reflective questions. They were 16 females, and 13 males representing four main medical specialties: basic science (n=10), medical-based (n=9), surgical-based (n=5), and laboratory-based (n=5). The thematic analysis identified five themes of challenges faced by medical lecturers during the pandemic that include ICT facility and support, lecturers' receptivity, online students' engagement, online assessment, and online teaching. Conclusion: This study emphasised the common obstacles faced by medical lecturers during the COVID-19 MCO in order to maintain the continuity of medical education delivery. Students, lecturers, curriculum, ICT facility, and technical assistance were all part of the issues. Several proposals for charting ways to improve medical education delivery during the epidemic were explored. © 2022 UPM Press. All rights reserved.