- The sudden loss of smell and taste is one of the strangest symptoms of COVID-19 reported by infected people.
- Most people recover their senses in a few weeks or months, but there are survivors of COVID-19 who can take time to recover their lost senses.
- Now, a new study suggests that some people may regain their sense of smell or taste after surviving COVID-19.
The clinical presentation of COVID-19 is not sufficient for a definitive diagnosis, and this is because the vast majority of symptoms that can arise from an infection are not unique. But there is a signal detected by doctors at the beginning of the pandemic that is more likely to be associated with COVID-19 than anything else. This is the sudden loss of smell and taste that many patients with COVID-19 have experienced. The phenomenon has been studied in recent months and, although it is indeed quite bizarre, we now have an explanation of why it occurs. The virus infects cells in the nose, which leads to local inflammation that can prevent olfactory neurons from detecting the smell. This, in turn, can make the taste buds disappear at the same time.
Most people recover both senses within a few weeks or months after the infection has cleared. It may take some training, but the senses eventually return. However, there are some patients with COVID-19 who will have to wait much longer to regain their sense of smell and taste – and some of them may never recover those senses.
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A recent study showed that most people who lost their sense of smell and taste developed mild cases of COVID-19. This seemed like a good thing, as the symptom can act as some kind of marker of COVID-19’s severity.
So, a different study published in Journal of Internal Medicine (JIM) showed that many of the volunteers took several months for the senses to return. About 15.3% of the patients did not regain consciousness after 60 days. The percentage dropped to 4.7% at the six-month mark, but that still leaves people who were unable to smell aromas or taste food long after they recovered from COVID-19.
Per Yahoo Live, an April study showed that many patients with COVID-19 still had these symptoms long after other symptoms had disappeared. O European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology found that only about a quarter of the participants regained consciousness in two weeks.
Explaining the persistent symptoms to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in August, Dr. Jessica Grayson said that hope is not lost for those who have yet to taste or smell it. “Patients with post-viral scent loss have about a 60 to 80 percent chance of recovering part of their olfactory function in one year,” she said. But cognitive and neurological expert Leo Newhouse addressed the same issue in Harvard Health in mid-August. “Some of us may never recover our sense of smell or taste,” wrote Newhouse, citing the same chances of recovery a year after the illness.
This can be a long and irritating wait. O Yahoo report notes that a 2016 study in Chemical Senses found that “patients with olfactory dysfunction have symptoms of depression that worsen with the severity of the loss of smell”.
A significant percentage of COVID-19 survivors continue to experience various symptoms for months after infection. THE ABC news detailed report a case a few days ago. A survivor who beat the disease more than nine months ago said she has not yet completely recovered the smell and taste, and still has brain fog. It is not clear from these studies and reports whether COVID-19 survivors who are unable to smell or taste after more than six months have other symptoms of COVID Longo.
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Chris Smith started writing about gadgets as a hobby and, before he knew it, was already sharing his views on technology with readers around the world. Whenever he’s not writing about gadgets, he fails miserably to stay away from them, although he tries desperately. But this is not necessarily a bad thing.