The words cinnamon, honey and coffee can evoke a delicious breakfast, but SmellTracker uses these everyday food ingredients in an unprecedented way to track Covid-19.
"Anyone can enter the SmellTracker website and take a very simple test to easily assess whether their sense of smell is altered – an indication that that person might have Covid-19,” says Zachary Mainen, from the Champalimaud Centre, whose group is coordinating a study on SmellTracker in Portugal.
Loss of smell has come to be regarded as one of the main symptoms of Covid-19. In some people it is an early symptom, followed by others such as cough and fever – while in others it is the only physical sign of infection.
Although loss of smell can occur due to other circumstances, several studies and reports suggest that sudden change in olfactory function is a distinctive feature of Covid-19. And in fact, this unusual symptom, which in most cases resolves within a few weeks, could be a boon.
“The high rate of infection by the virus means that finding an easy and quick way to detect cases of Covid-19 could be crucial for public and individual health. However, performing large-scale physiological tests for aCovid-19 is difficult to implement,” says Cindy Poo, one of the investigators involved in the study. "That's where SmellTracker comes into the picture."
O SmileTracker addresses the problem by allowing people to monitor their symptoms, while at the same time collecting vital information about Covid-19 symptom patterns in the population.
Initially developed in the laboratory of Israeli scientist Noam Sobel, the test collects, from the participants, the sensations of pleasure and intensity evoked by five smells (chosen by each subject from a long list of options).
At the end of this short test, each participant learns whether or not they are having an abnormal olfactory response. The test can be repeated as often as you like, for those who want to do continuous monitoring.
Is SmellTracker an effective way to detect and track Covid-19? A study in Sweden of thousands of people yielded promising results, suggesting that the data collected through the trial can predict the incidence of Covid-19 in the population, as well as other non-olfactory symptoms.
“This is an unprecedented type of citizen science project,” points out Poo. “At the individual level, it can lead to more people making informed decisions about their own health, such as seeking medical help sooner. And screening for these symptoms in a larger population can, on the other hand, help health authorities track the spread of the disease more accurately and react more quickly to outbreaks.”
Indeed, studies of this type could have a major impact on public health policy. For example, in the UK, studies like this have already led to a review of general recommendations: people who suddenly have this symptom are now asked to self-isolate, even if they do not have any other symptoms.
As with most citizen science projects, one of the strengths of this study is its scale. To date, it has been taking place in nine countries (Sweden, Germany, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Italy, Japan and Portugal) and the number of participants increases with each passing day.
"We ask people to visit the SmellTracker page and take the test. It is easy and even interesting to assess our olfactory acuity. The more people who participate, the better we will be able to assess the effectiveness of this approach in terms of public health and personnel,” concludes Mainen.
Author Champalimaud Foundation
Science in the Regional Press – Ciência Viva
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