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Recovered Covid patients who have lost their sense of smell and taste after being infected with the coronavirus may not see their senses return for five months.
Anosmia, the loss or alteration of smell and taste, is officially recognized as a symptom of coronavirus infection.
Data from the Bureau of National Statistics shows that half of coronavirus patients show symptoms, with 16 and 17 percent of them suffering from some form of loss of smell and taste, respectively.
Researchers at the University of Quebec studied 813 healthcare workers who contracted Covid-19.
More than a third (38%) of those who lost their minds had not regained their taste after five months.
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Recovered Covid patients who have lost their sense of smell and taste after being infected with the coronavirus may not see their senses return for five months. Anosmia, the loss or alteration of smell and taste, is formally recognized as a symptom of coronavirus infection (stock)
Study participants all filled out questionnaires and performed home tests to assess their sense of taste and smell.
These were done an average of five months after catching Covid-19 and researchers are therefore unable to say whether or not the anosmia lasts longer, as the data does not yet exist.
“Although COVID-19 is a new disease, previous research shows that most people lose their sense of smell and taste in the early stages of the disease,” said study author Dr Johannes Frasnelli.
“ We wanted to take a step further and look at how long this loss of smell and taste persists, and how severe it is in people with COVID-19. ”
People rated their smell and taste on a scale of 0 to 10, with zero meaning absolutely no sense and 10 meaning strong sense.
The average score for people recovering from Covid was eight, while it was nine for people before they fell ill.
Of the 813 participants, 527 lost their sense of taste during the initial illness.
Thirty-eight percent (200 people) of them had not regained their sense of taste five months later.
“Our results show that altered smell and taste can persist in a number of people with COVID-19,” said Dr. Frasnelli.
“This underscores the importance of tracking those infected and the need for further research to uncover the extent of neurological problems associated with COVID-19.
The study has not yet been peer reviewed and will be presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology April 17-22.
Loss of smell and taste was officially recognized as a symptom of Covid on May 18, 2020, and since then has been an integral part of the diagnostic process as the NHS says the only three telltale signs of the disease are fever and cough. or loss of taste and smell.
Researchers at King’s College London (KCL) recently called on policymakers to expand this set of recognized symptoms.
Researchers at the University of Quebec studied 813 healthcare workers who contracted Covid-19. More than a third (38%) of those who lost their minds had not fully recovered their taste after five months (stock)
They say the addition of fatigue, sore throat, headaches and diarrhea would allow “millions” of unconfirmed cases to be detected.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty is already under pressure to change the official list of Covid symptoms after the results of a government-led study, REACT, revealed that thousands of infected people were sneaking between them. mesh size due to narrow guidelines.
The World Health Organization and U.S. officials recognize other less common symptoms such as muscle pain and diarrhea.
But current testing and tracing rules mean swabs in the UK are only for people with a fever, continuous cough, or loss of smell or taste.
Professor Tim Spector, Principal Zoe App Scientist and Epidemiologist at King’s College London, said: “ We have known from the start that focusing only on testing the classic triad of cough, fever and anosmia misses a significant proportion of positive cases.
“We identified anosmia as a symptom in May and our work led the government to add it to the list; it is now clear that we need to add more.
“By inviting all users who register new symptoms to be tested, we have confirmed that there are many more symptoms of Covid.”
A group of 140 family doctors in London echoed this sentiment and called on health chiefs to increase the number of recognized symptoms.
They say many patients with milder signs have not even considered that they might have the virus and have not self-isolated when they are most contagious.
Doctors add that they must encourage patients to lie in order to take a test, which is only available to those with all three recognized symptoms.
Expanding the program to include runny noses in the middle of winter would likely put enormous strain on the UK’s testing and traceability system.
Top scientists have been campaigning for the official list to be expanded for months, after warning that it does not detect enough infections in the early stages.
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