Temporary loss of smell is called hyposmia
It is not unknown that coronavirus affects the olfactory cells which are responsible for smell sense in human beings. In most cases, this loss of smell is temporary and the patient recovers weeks or months after the COVID infection. This temporary loss of smell is also called hyposmia.
How is loss of smell in COVID detected?
This is not a gradual process. Many people who have experienced this say they lost their sense of smell all of a sudden. Since smell is one of the important senses of a human being, it irks a lot when it stops abruptly.
How has it affected COVID infected people?
COVID patients, who experience loss of smell, say that this has affected their diet to a large extent. Along with loss of smell, people also lose sense of taste and when both these conditions couple together it becomes difficult for an ill individual to eat properly. Not only diet, loss of smell can make a person susceptible to accidents. Without the ability to smell, one can’t detect dangerous smells like gas or fire and smoke and even poisonous gases. Not only this, one can also overlook spoiled food and other eatable items that can lead to unpleasant and potentially dangerous health hazards later.
Why COVID causes loss of smell?
A research team from Italy had found that loss of taste and smell is observed in the body just at the same time when there is a spike in interleukin 6 in the blood. Interleukin 6 is an inflammation signalling molecule; measurement of circulating interleukin 6 levels may be important in identifying disease progression among COVID-19-infected patients, as per research studies.
Studies have found that two genes ACE2 and TMPRSS2 which are important for the coronavirus' entry to human body are also expressed by the cells in the olfactory epithelium. This olfactory epithelium is responsible for detection of smell in the human being. The presence of the genes makes the olfactory epithelium vulnerable to the infection.
Research experts have said, the temporary loss of smell is due to the loss of function of the supporting cells in the olfactory epithelium after the viral attack.
How quickly does the lost smell sense return?
It varies from individual to individual. While some people get back their smell within a few days, in many the situation comes back to normal through a very slow process. A 2020 research study had found that over 70% of the people who had lost their smell recovered it after a month.
"According to some experts, patients with post-viral loss of smell have roughly a 60% to 80% chance of regaining some of their smell function within a year. Since the sense of smell usually diminishes due to age, the recovery could take longer and be less than complete for older adults," a Harvard report says.
Is there any test to detect if the smell has come back?
There is no specific test as such. One can try smell training to check if the sense is back or not.
Smell training or sniffing aromatic products will help awaken the olfactory sense, experts say. Keep small bottles of essential oils or perfumes close by and smell it frequently, to find out if the smell has been revived or not.
Will it impair the smell ability of a human being permanently?
In 2020, only few months after the coronavirus was detected worldwide, a report by the Harvard Medical School said that an international team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School has identified the olfactory cell types in the upper nasal cavity most vulnerable to infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 and had clearly stated that only the olfactory cells are vulnerable to coronavirus, not the sensory neurons that transmit the sense of smell. Thus indicating that it is a temporary condition.
A similar insight was also given by another group of scientists."When researchers first identified smell loss as a symptom of COVID-19, they were worried that the virus was infecting the odour-sensing neurons in the nose that send signals to the olfactory bulb in the brain — and that the virus could therefore access the brain. However, post-mortem studies of people who had had COVID-19 have shown that the virus rarely reaches the brain," says an article in Nature.
Experts worldwide have said that the loss of smell due to COVID is temporary and will revive; however, the rate at which it will revive varies from person to person.
Also Read: If you experience this sign while urinating, it could be a sign of COVID infection
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