It was one of the most common Covid symptoms when the pandemic began. Two years on, some still haven’t fully recovered their sense of taste and smell.
It’s hard to even think about – but for some people who recovered from Covid-19 months ago, it’s their reality.
And while Omicron seems less likely to attack these senses, with the rate down to between 5 and 10 per cent, both the Alpha and Delta strains caused a loss of smell and taste in somewhere between 40 and 90 per cent of cases,Stanford head and neck surgeon and smell-loss expert, Dr Zara Patel, told: “I could go on for pages about how smell affects the way we interact as human beings – how we choose sexual partners, how we choose life partners, how parents and infants bond, how we make first...
There’s growing evidence that a substantial number of people go on to develop long-term distortions to their senses after having Covid. Picture: Philippe Desmazes/AFPThose who lose their sense of smell are suffering anosmia; those who find that once pleasant smells are now deeply unpleasant or altered are suffering parosmia; and those experiencing a distorted sense of taste are suffering dysgeusia.
instead found the cells that support sensory neurons in the nose are probably what the virus is infecting.found that loss of the two senses occurred at the same time as an increase in blood levels of an inflammation-signalling molecule called interleukin-6.The receptor support smells damaged by the virus naturally regenerate – usually every two weeks under normal circumstances.
As they regain their sense of smell, odours often register as unpleasant and different from how they remembered them, which could be because the olfactory sensory neurons rewind as they recover, she toldFor others who remain fully anosmic for months, she suggested it isn’t clear why, but could be because Covid has killed the olfactory sensory neurons.
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