COVID-19 Fallout: Some Survivors May Have To Live With Loss Of Smell Forever

Loss of smell or Anosmia, one of the first symptoms of the coronavirus can become a lifetime handicap in some survivors.

It may be an invisible handicap, but is psychologically difficult to live with and has no real treatment.

An increasing number of people are paying this price after surviving a brush with the coronavirus, with some facing a seemingly long-term inability to smell. “Anosmia cuts you off from the smells of life, it’s a torture,” said Maillard, president of anosmie.org, a French group designed to help sufferers, according to an NDTV report.

Apart from not being able to smell coffee, tea, soap, and the likes, people with Anosmia are unable to smell smoke from a fire, gas from a leak, or a poorly washed dustbin.

Coronavirus has now been added to the existing dozens of causes of Anosmia but the treatment of the viral infection has no effect on a person’s inability to smell. The bad news is that the disease has destroyed the olfactory neurons, the ones that detect smells of corona survivors. The good news is that these neurons, at the back of the nose, are able to regenerate.

Two Paris hospitals, Rothschild and Lariboisiere, have launched a “CovidORL” study to investigate the phenomenon, testing how well different nose washes can cure Anosmia.