What to do if and when Covid 19 robs you of sense of smell

AS EVERYONE knows from all the public health warnings, the three main symptoms of Covid are a high temperature, a new persistent cough and loss of smell and taste.

Most people who contract the infection have at least one of these symptoms and you should have a test and stay at home until you get the test result.

The last symptom can be a real nuisance during the active infection period and can persist for several weeks.

Loss of the sense of smell is called anosmia.

This symptom was noticed early in the pandemic. Indeed, many people with the infection only experienced this symptom.

It was also noticed that some people lost their ability to detect other chemically triggered sensations such as spiciness, which is called chemesthesis.

If sudden anosmia occurs there is a 95 per cent chance that this is likely to be Covid related.

Curiously, the symptom is more common in those who have a mild infection than those with a more severe infection.

This could, of course, be a matter of reporting, in that if you are struggling to breathe, the sense of smell is less significant.

But scientists are still researching how the sense of smell is affected in Covid.

It seems to be more than just the congestion you get with other respiratory infections.

On recovery from Covid about 50 per cent recover taste and smell within two to three weeks. Another 40 per cent will recover it by eight weeks. By the end of six months only two per cent will still have the problem.

In recovery a lot of people will experience ‘parosmia,’ meaning that their smell is distorted. Things might smell uncharacteristically unpleasant, like burned toast for example.

There is evidence that the nose can be retrained. A collaboration by the British Rhinological Society and the charity AbScent has been made available at a website called Nosewell, which gives lots of information and advice that might help, using essential oils like rose, lemon, eucalyptus, and clove.

These all seem to cover a range of smell triggers.

The idea is to smell and try to recollect the odour. For example, imagine the rose garden with rose, or smelling the lemon oil and try to remember the tang of lemon.

It is worth a go if you have persisting anosmia. Go to https://abscent.org/nosewell