I do not have any sense of smell and taste after days of recovering from COVID-19. Why?

Question

Hi doctor,

Before a month, I lost my sense of smell and taste. After ten days, I was diagnosed with COVID-19. After few days, I had my second swab test and it came out with a negative result. But still, I do not have any sense of smell and taste. I am thinking that I have a problem with my body. Kindly suggest.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

This is perfectly normal as seventy percent of patients with positive results of COVID-19 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) have complaints of anosmia and altered sense of taste (dysgeusia). It occurs suddenly in eighty percent of patients while in the rest, it occurs gradually. In this, the virus attacks the olfactory receptors in the base of the skull. It does not allow the processing of smell and effective transmission to occur. So it results in loss of perception of smell. The processing areas of smell and taste are located closely in the brain and it works in synchronization. If there is a loss in the processing of smell, then taste perception also comes down and this is the reason for you to have an altered perception of taste. Some of the immunocompetent patients have other complaints such as headaches, weakness, fever associated with loss of smell and taste while others have loss of taste and smell alone. It can take approximately around four months on average to get back fifty percent of both smell and taste sensations back. This time duration can vary and there is nothing to help you in this situation. There is no time-tested medication to bring back the functions of taste and smell back in a quick and effective manner. I am sure that both perceptions of smell and taste will improve soon and you will become perfectly normal.