Long Covid’s patients are being haunted by “unbearable” odors like fish and burning instead of normal smells, the researchers say, as more unusual symptoms of the virus emerge.
Otorhinolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat) surgeon Professor Nirmal Kumar said that this “very strange and unique” long-term symptom known as parosmia appears to be affecting young people and healthcare professionals in particular.
The surgeon, who is also president of ENT UK, was one of the first doctors to identify anosmia, loss of smell, as an indicator of coronavirus in March, and asked Public Health England to add it to the list of symptoms months before it became official guidance.
After treating and studying patients with long-standing anosmia, something he said has affected thousands of people across the UK, Professor Kumar realized that some were recovering just to have parosmia.
Professor Kumar told the PA news agency: “This morning I saw two patients with parosmia.
“One said he could smell fish instead of any other smell, and the other could smell burning when there was no smoke around.
“Both are health professionals and we think that there is an increased incidence in young people and also in health professionals because of exposure to the virus in hospitals.
“For some people, it’s really upsetting them.”
“We are calling it a neurotropic virus,” he added.
“This means that the virus is affecting the nerves in the roof of the nose – it’s like a shock to the nervous system and the nerves are not working.”
Daniel Salvaki, a 24-year-old banker who lives in London, said he lost his taste and smell for two weeks after contracting the coronavirus in March, and has suffered from parosmia ever since.
Salva-me, from West Yorkshire, said that strong-smelling things like cans now smell like burnt sulfur, or they smell “like toast.”
He added: “It has diminished my taste for food and it is a little depressing not to be able to smell certain foods.”
Lynn Corbett, a real estate manager, said she was “shocked” to wake up on her 52nd birthday in March with “absolutely no smell or taste”.
Mrs. Corbett, from Selsey in Sussex, said: “From March until the end of May, I couldn’t taste anything – I honestly think I could have bitten a raw onion, such was my loss of flavor.”
She said her nose started to come back in June, but “nothing smells as it should”.
“Most things had a disgusting smell, a sweet and sickening smell that is difficult to describe, since I have never seen it before,” she said.
She added that despite being “addicted to coffee” before March, the drink now smells “unbearable”, just like beer and gasoline.
Mrs. Corbett said, “I’m not sure if things are going to go back to how they were.
“I’m fine with that, I just think I’m lucky that if I had coronavirus, which it seems I did, then I wasn’t seriously ill, hospitalized or died like so many others.”
Charity AbScent, which supports people with sense of smell, is collecting information from thousands of patients with anosmia and parosmia in partnership with ENT UK and the British Rhinological Society to assist in the development of therapies.
AbScent recommends “smell training”, which involves smelling rose, lemon, clove and eucalyptus oils every day for about 20 seconds for anyone trying to recover their sense of smell.