For many people with COVID-19, the first sign they had the virus was a loss in their sense of smell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now a team from the Kolling Institute and Royal North Shore Hospital will investigate the correlation between the virus and early symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Study lead Associate Professor Rory Clifton-Bligh said a loss of smell has emerged as a common symptom of COVID-19 infection, but the current data is relying on subjective, self-reported information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThis study will objectively assess loss of smell with people who have tested positive to COVID-19,\u201d said Associate Professor Clifton-Bligh, head of Endocrinology at RNSH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will be using a validated test kit for smell identification. Depending upon our findings, it may then be possible to develop a rapid screening test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really pleasing to be involved in such an important study, and we hope it will assist early diagnosis of the virus and future treatment options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe hope it will potentially help a large number people across Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Head of Neurogenetics and Executive Director of the Kolling Institute Professor Carolyn Sue will form part of the research team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have used this smell test before to assess patients with other medical conditions and found it easy to do and interpret,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis new application of the smell test is an exciting way to combine our past expertise with new research collaborations to help solve COVID-19 related health problems for our patients and the general community.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The study team is looking to recruit patients who\u2019ve tested positive to COVID-19 and are being monitored through the Royal North Shore Virtual Hospital or have been admitted to RNSH with mild-moderate COVID-19 illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study will involve a structured questionnaire followed by the smell test, based on the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Smell Identification Kit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1597,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"research-group-tax":[],"primary-research-area":[],"class_list":["post-1596","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletters"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumb_Blog_Rory-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop-Large.jpeg",550,380,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumb_Blog_Rory-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop-Large-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumb_Blog_Rory-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop-Large-300x207.jpeg",300,207,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumb_Blog_Rory-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop-Large.jpeg",550,380,false],"large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumb_Blog_Rory-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop-Large.jpeg",550,380,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumb_Blog_Rory-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop-Large.jpeg",550,380,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumb_Blog_Rory-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop-Large.jpeg",550,380,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ict-wordpress-support@sydney.edu.au","author_link":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/author\/ict-wordpress-supportsydney-edu-au\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"For many people with COVID-19, the first sign they had the virus was a loss in their sense of smell. Now a team from the Kolling Institute and Royal North Shore Hospital will investigate the correlation between the virus and early symptoms. Study lead Associate Professor Rory Clifton-Bligh said a loss of smell has emerged…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"research-group-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-group-tax?post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"primary-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary-research-area?post=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}