Studies show that mild cases of Covid-19 are more likely to lose their odor

For people with mild covid-19, the nose may know better than any other part of the body. New research released on Wednesday suggests that nearly 90% of people with mild disease loses their sense of smell, a greater proportion than those with more serious illnesses. Although usually temporary, this odor loss can the last one six months and me tooangel.

The research, published In the Journal of Internal Medicine, it analyzed the medical records of more than 2,500 covid-19 patients who sought care at one of 18 hospitals across Europe. Most were outpatients diagnosed with mild to moderate symptoms, while others were hospitalized with severe or critical covid-19.

Overall, about three-quarters of patients self-reported an odor loss, medically known as anosmia. But there was a big gap in the presentation of this symptom at different levels of severity. Among patients with mild diseases, 86% reported odor loss, compared with only 4.5% of moderate patients and 6.9% of severe patients. When we look only at patients whose odor loss has been confirmed by objective tests, this gap has narrowed, but it remains: 54.7% of these milder cases confirmed odor loss, compared to 36.6% of moderate to critical cases.

Olfactory dysfunction is a predominant disorder in patients with covid-19 with a higher prevalence in patients with mild forms of the disease, the authors wrote.

The results are in line with previous studies showing that anosmia is a very common symptom of covid-19 – although one that was subreportat in the early days of the pandemic. Other research has suggested that milder cases tend to have anosmia more often. But the new study is one of the largest of its kind to examine its prevalence and to have data from patients who had their anosmia confirmed with tests.

Although this study cannot tell us why there are so many easier cases prone to loss of sense of smell, the authors have theories. The main explanation is that anosmia it’s ironically a sign that the body is doing a decent job of avoiding the coronavirus. In these patients, the infection never spreads far beyond the upper respiratory tract, due to a localized and robust immune response. But this answer it can lead to inflammation that damages or interferes with nearby cells that help us process the smell, at least for a short time.

There may be some wrong memories for more severe cases. Hospital patients often experience many varied symptoms, while the most critical patients may need intensive interventions, such as a feeding tube or ventilation. Ppatients with more severe covid-19 may not notice their anosmia as it happens. This could explain the higher rates of study anosmia among moderatesto-serious cases that have actually been examined for this.

Fortunately, for most people experiencing covid-related animation, seems to be self-limiting. The average time that lasted in patients was about three weeks, about a third reporting that it lasted only two weeks. But 15% of objectively examined patients lost their sense of smell for at least two months, while just under 5% still did not have it back until sixmonthly mark. Those with more severe anosmia at first they were more likely to experience it months later.

The authors theorize that cases of animus with shorter duration it is often nothing more than nasal congestion and swelling that are commonly found in everyday colds and can temporarily block our ability to sniff. But those with persistent anosmia they probably have a more complicated problem on their hands, which means big damage to olfactory cells, either from infection or from inflammation. While most people who take covid-19 will be able to smell it afterwards, the sheer size of the pandemic – with 86 million cases confirmed worldwide in early January – means that a lot of people could loses the sense of final smell.

The authors hope that their research will lead to future studies that will follow these cases in the long term in order to better understand the phenomenon, as well as to find out how to improving a person chance of recovery.