{"doi":"10.1016/j.ijid.2023.03.044","title":"The prevalence of olfactory dysfunction with Omicron has decreased in Asia, similar to Western countries","abstract":"•The prevalence of olfactory dysfunction is reduced with the Omicron variant.•Asia has a relatively low prevalence of olfactory dysfunction with Omicron.•Both viral and host factors contribute to the susceptibility of olfactory dysfunction. Two recent papers in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases discuss the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction after infection with the Omicron variant. We wish to clarify two misconceptions. The paper by Song et al. [[1]Song J Jing Q Zhu E Liu Q Fei M Zhang H et al.Alterations in smell or taste in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 during periods of Omicron variant dominance.Int J Infect Dis. 2023; 128: 278-284https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2023.01.017Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar] reported, in a cohort of 688 patients, a 41.3% prevalence of olfactory dysfunction, which is the highest prevalence ever reported for this variant. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 62 studies with 626,035 patients concluded that the global prevalence of olfactory dysfunction due to Omicron is 3.7% [[2]von Bartheld CS Wang L. Prevalence of olfactory dysfunction with the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Cells. 2023; 12: 430https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12030430Crossref PubMed Scopus (17) Google Scholar], and in East Asia, based on 17 studies with a total cohort of 3,585, it was estimated at 1.9% [[2]von Bartheld CS Wang L. Prevalence of olfactory dysfunction with the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Cells. 2023; 12: 430https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12030430Crossref PubMed Scopus (17) Google Scholar]. Estimates of 2.6-3.7% have recently been reported by three additional studies [3Wang Y Chen Y Gu L Lou L Zhang J Zhang K. The clinical characteristics and risk factors for severe COVID-19 in patients with COVID-19 and tuberculosis coinfection.Front Microbiol. 2022; 131061879https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.1061879Crossref Scopus (2) Google Scholar, 4Weng Z Zheng Y Zheng M Chen W He H Ye X et al.Epidemiological and clinical features of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infection in China: a retrospective study.Research Square. 2023; https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2471447/v1Date accessed: April 8, 2023Crossref Google Scholar, 5Nakakubo S, Kishida N, Okuda K, Kamada K, Iwama M, Suzuki M, et al. Associations of COVID-19 symptoms with omicron subvariants BA.2 and BA.5, Host Status, and Clinical Outcomes: a Registry-Based Observational Study in Sapporo, Japan. medRxiv 2023. doi:10.1101/2023.02.02.23285393. [Accessed 08 April 2023].Google Scholar], including one mega-study of 157,861 East Asians [[5]Nakakubo S, Kishida N, Okuda K, Kamada K, Iwama M, Suzuki M, et al. Associations of COVID-19 symptoms with omicron subvariants BA.2 and BA.5, Host Status, and Clinical Outcomes: a Registry-Based Observational Study in Sapporo, Japan. medRxiv 2023. doi:10.1101/2023.02.02.23285393. [Accessed 08 April 2023].Google Scholar]. Thus, the study by Song et al. [[1]Song J Jing Q Zhu E Liu Q Fei M Zhang H et al.Alterations in smell or taste in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 during periods of Omicron variant dominance.Int J Infect Dis. 2023; 128: 278-284https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2023.01.017Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar] is an outlier, not representative for East Asia (Figure 1A,B). In a commentary to this study [[1]Song J Jing Q Zhu E Liu Q Fei M Zhang H et al.Alterations in smell or taste in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 during periods of Omicron variant dominance.Int J Infect Dis. 2023; 128: 278-284https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2023.01.017Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar], Vaira et al. [[6]Vaira LA De Riu G Mayo-Yáñez M Gengler IM Lechien JR. Prevalence of chemosensitive disorders with Omicron infections and the possible impacts of vaccination.Int J Infect Dis. 2023; 129: 205-206https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2023.02.007Abstract Full T","journal":"International Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2023,"id":384761,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9564,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":986927,"name":"Lingchen Wang","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":231291,"name":"Christopher S. von Bartheld","orcid":"0000-0003-2716-6601","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":11,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:17:37.110513Z","pmid":"37001800","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}