With the outbreak of the new Corona virus, the nose appears as an important organ in the spread of the virus, and it may be the most important, so what does the nose consist of? What is its role in the spread of the Corona virus? How does the virus lead to a loss of smell? Answers are in this report.
What is the nose made of?
The nose helps breathing and smell, and is located in the middle of the face, and it consists of the following parts:
External meatus: It is the outer part of the nose, and is triangular in shape, according to Stanford Children's Health.
- External nostrils: two chambers divided by a diaphragm.
Septum: It consists of a cartilage and a bone portion and is covered by a mucous membrane. It also gives shape and support to the outer part of the nose.
Nasal passages: passages lined with a mucous membrane and tiny hairs (cilia) that help filter air.
Sinuses: There are 4 pairs of air-filled cavities, lined with a mucous membrane.
What is the role of the nose in the spread of Corona?
Experts indicate that the place with the highest intensity of the Coronavirus is not usually found in the lungs, but in the upper respiratory tract, especially in the nose and nasopharynx (Nasopharynx).
This means
that without leaving your nose cover amid corona virus outbreak, expose double jeopardy, it allows the virus to enter a point to your body, and out of them also others to infection.
Loss of smell may be a symptom of Covid-19 infection, according to the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, which is affiliated with the United Kingdom's National Health Service.
However, most patients with Covid-19 also experience fever, chills, fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, and stomach problems.
The site says that if you are concerned that you may have Covid-19, you should call the emergency line for advice.
According to what the Deutsche Welle website quoted from the German medical website Pharmazeutische Zeitung ×, about 85% of people with Covid-19 say that they suffer - along with other symptoms - from disorders of the sense of smell, which can range from severe deficiency to Complete loss of smell, which may last for several days.
How does corona lead to a loss of the sense of smell?
American scientists from Johns Hopkins University have concluded that studying nasal tissues may help in developing new treatments for Corona virus, by explaining how people infected with the virus lose their sense of smell, according to what was published by the European Respiratory Journal.
Scientists conducted a study on nasal tissue that was extracted from 23 patients who underwent surgery, and it seemed from the tissue that Corona could cause a severe loss of smell in the absence of other symptoms.
The scientists also found a high level of the enzyme "ACE-2" - the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 - inside the nasal tissues of the infected people, and thus they went to the conclusion that these tissues could be the "entry point" of the virus into the cells of a person's body. Injured.
The enzyme was found in large concentrations only in the cells that line the "olfactory epithelium", the region behind the nose that detects odors.
"These results suggest that this area of the nose could be the point from which the virus enters the body," said Mingfe Chen, associate researcher at Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine.
Risks of losing the sense of smell
And when it comes to fire, smoke or chemicals, noses become a life saver, and the German Association for Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery says that the importance of the sense of smell is often not appreciated enough, unfortunately.
We
know these days that people lose their sense of taste is also in the event of their inability to smell, a sense of less strength with age, and smells excite memories.
A potential treatment option for the infection
Scientists at Johns Hopkins University said that these research results could pave the way for a new way to help find a cure for people with Covid-19.
For his part, co-researcher Andrew Lynn said that the Johns Hopkins team is studying "if the virus is actually using those cells to enter the body and infect it," and added, "If so, we may be able to treat the infection with antiviral treatments that are administered directly through the nose."
Professor of Pulmonology and Director of the Department of Pulmonary and Infectious Diseases at the University of Hannover Medical School, Tobias Vellte - who was not involved in the study - praised the study, describing it as "smart", and said that it explains the loss of smell in patients, and also provides new treatment options. However, the German doctor believes that more research and examination should be conducted in this regard.
A central element of personality
The German Society of Plastic Surgery believes that "the nose is a central element of the human personality, as it is an axis that attracts visual attention to others, and plays an important role in shaping the aesthetic effect of the face."
In
this regard, the doctors say that "dissatisfaction with the shape of the nose leads to a high degree of personal suffering and poor self - esteem."
For this
reason people choose plastic surgery to their noses, and performed these surgeries in cases of suffering from breathing problems, for example, is the operations performed for the nose are among the most common cosmetic surgery, and conducted more than 450 thousand surgeries for the nose and sinuses Nasal areas in Germany in 2018 alone.