Boise woman tested positive for the coronavirus with one primary, obscure symptom
Natalie Little thinks back now on all the people she interacted with and all the places she touched while she unknowingly carried the coronavirus.
That, far more than the virus, scares the 22-year-old college student.
And it could happen to anyone — which is why she decided to speak out about her diagnosis, hoping those who have resisted calls for extreme social distancing will rethink that stance.
“It’s scary,” Little said Monday night while self-isolated in her parents’ Boise home, “to think about how easily people my age can be walking around and feeling nothing and still be spreading the virus to people who could potentially develop symptoms serious enough to not survive it.”
Little was one of 433 Idahoans who had tested positive for the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease by the end of Monday. And she did so under unusual circumstances.
The only significant symptom she experienced was the loss of taste and smell — a symptom that has started to gain attention for its connection to the coronavirus, but still not enough to pass the screening process for testing on its own.
Little said she also noticed some shortness of breath on the day she went to get tested. That was enough to get a test, she said, when she was told by those working at a drive-up testing location that several others reported the taste/smell symptom but weren’t tested.
The biomedical sciences major at The College of Idaho had debated whether it was worth getting tested, knowing there’s a limited number of tests available. She eventually “went with my gut a little bit” and pursued the test — 11 days after those two senses disappeared. Monday was the 16th day, and although she has noticed occasional improvement, those senses still haven’t returned.
“I just thought if I happened to be positive … it could confirm in a way, really give a lot of evidence toward the fact that it is a somewhat reliable symptom,” she said.
The loss of taste and smell has been noted as a potential symptom of COVID-19 in Italy, China, South Korea and the U.S., according to a recent report from National Public Radio. The American Academy of Otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat doctors, and head and neck surgeons) has requested that anosmia (loss of smell) and dysgeusia (altered sense of taste) be included in screening protocols for COVID-19.
Little hasn’t had a sense of taste since at least March 14, she said. That was the day after the first positive test in Idaho was announced.
She said she had last been out of state March 1, when she was in western Oregon for a tennis competition. Otherwise, she’d spent the month in the Treasure Valley.
It wasn’t until March 23, she said, that she heard that a lack of smell/taste could be a symptom. She began self-isolating, just to be safe.
“She’s never had that before,” said her mom, Carmen Little. “So I was just kind of surprised, and proud of her that she took the initiative to do that, to self-isolate and get herself tested.”
Natalie Little was tested last Wednesday and received the result on Saturday evening, which she shared with the Idaho Statesman. She immediately informed all of the people she could think of who could have been infected — study partners, professors and family members among them, she said. She gave a list of 15-20 names and phone numbers to Central District Health, which told her parents that they would need to self-isolate for more than two weeks.
Natalie’s dad is a 73-year-old retired physician. He has been tested but hasn’t received a result, she said.
“For me, it’s not scary in the fact that I feel like I’m going to be suffering or anything,” Natalie said. “But it does worry me a lot because I visited three different sets of grandparents within that week when I was having symptoms and didn’t know it.
“That’s the scariest part for me — knowing how many people within my own family I had contact with, but also knowing wherever I went, whatever I touched, I probably left some virus there. And who knows who touched it after me?”
The Littles have been burning through their freezer in isolation — “All those things you never eat? Now they’re starting to disappear,” Carmen said — with a grocery-delivery service likely the next step.
Natalie expects to be released from self-isolation soon. Because she’s already more than seven days since her symptoms appeared and she hasn’t had a fever, she just has to wait for her symptoms to improve.
Her parents must wait 14 days after she is cleared to end their isolation.
“Viruses go around,” Carmen said. “It’s just a new one. We’re not really afraid of it, but we’re worried enough. We do have family members that are (health) compromised. That is definitely a concern.”
Natalie hopes her experience will help those who are feeling well to realize how much of a false sense of security that can be in a pandemic.
She has no idea how or where she contracted the virus. It’s quite possible she acquired it before there was even official confirmation that the coronavirus was in Idaho.
Two and a half weeks later, hundreds of Idahoans are sick and at least eight people have died.
“The message I wanted to spread the most was just, ‘Don’t think this stuff doesn’t apply to you — no matter your age, no matter who you have or haven’t been in contact with,’ ” Natalie said. “Because we’re still figuring out what the virus can do and how evolved its virulence factors are, and it’s so easy to spread it to others. We’re now finding out that younger people can be even exhibiting zero symptoms and still be able to spread it to other people that it will affect much worse.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
