The most identifying singularity of Covid, damage to the senses of smell and taste, has not altogether passed for many who otherwise recovered. A new study made by the Massachusetts Medical Center's Eye and Ear Department shows that a quarter of the victims in the U.S. have not yet fully recovered the loss of these two senses.
During the course of the pandemic, many victims experienced a loss of smell and taste during the illness and afterwards as well. Researchers from the Massachusetts General hospital, sought to quantify these losses. The study is based on data from the health study carried on in 2021 by the NHIS body connected to the U. S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) which includes 29,7000 Covid 19 victims. They were asked to describe the severity of their symptoms, focusing specifically upon the loss of smell and taste, and their degree of recovery therefrom.
The researchers found that 72% of the victim fully recovered the sense of smell, but 24% reported only partial recovery while more than 3% have not recovered at all. Similar results were found regarding recovery of the sense of taste: 76% recovered completely, 20% had a partial recovery and 2% did not experience any recovery at all. The collective figure of Americans who remained with a loss of either of the senses is estimated at 28 million people.
Professor Gil Bahachturiya, expert of ENT medicine at the center, and part of the research team, said that one of the reasons which pushed him to initiate this research was one patient who shed 50 kilo due to his loss of smell. "It appears to many that this phenomenon passed together with Covid, but there remains a significant number of people who have not yet recovered."
The study found a correlation between the severity of the symptoms at the time of illness and the chances of recovery of the two senses: the more severe the symptoms, the greater the percentage of patients who did not recover. Concurrently, the chances of recovery dropped. The findings of the study focus only on patients who were treated in 2021, so that others who recovered these two senses before or after 2021, are not included in the figures.
At the present, there is no treatment for the loss of smell and/or taste. The researchers claim that the findings show that a large group of patients were neglectful even though damage to those senses can lead to severe health problems such as depression and weight loss.
