The Burden of Prolonged Smell and Taste Loss in Covid-19

hubie writes:

Smell and taste dynfunction after covid-19:

"It was sudden, like turning an electric switch off." This is how one patient described her abrupt loss of smell and taste following infection with covid-19. "I was eating some lunch on day three after contracting covid-19 and one moment I could still smell and taste the flavours of my soup, and the next everything vanished."

She was not alone in this. In fact, smell and taste loss are common complaints among patients with covid-19, with an estimated 50% of patients reporting these symptoms. This is thought to occur due to conductive barriers and nerve damage from the extensive inflammation in covid-19 infection.

The recovery of smell and taste is very much a gradual process for some. In our analysis of 3699 patients from 12 countries, recently published in The BMJ, we found that at the 30 day mark following the initial infection, only 74% and 79% of patients are expected to recover their smell and taste respectively. Recovery rates rise with each passing month, reaching a peak of 96% for smell and 98% for taste after six months. [...]

Besides a quantitative impairment in smell, a sizeable proportion of patients also report qualitative smell impairment following covid-19 infection, manifesting as distortion of odour (known as parosmia) or a perception of smell in the absence of an odour (known as phantosmia). These patients often struggle to tolerate everyday smells and become increasingly withdrawn. Such a phenomenon has been postulated to occur due to aberrant regeneration of the neurons in the olfactory system during recovery.

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