{"id":261720,"date":"2023-11-09T11:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/covid-linked-loss-of-smell-taste-resolves-by-3-years-after-infection-drugs-com-mednews\/"},"modified":"2023-11-09T12:48:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T17:48:16","slug":"covid-linked-loss-of-smell-taste-resolves-by-3-years-after-infection-drugs-com-mednews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/covid-linked-loss-of-smell-taste-resolves-by-3-years-after-infection-drugs-com-mednews\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-Linked Loss of Smell, Taste Resolves by 3 Years After Infection – Drugs.com MedNews","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Medically reviewed<\/a> by Drugs.com.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter<\/p>\n

THURSDAY, Nov. 9, 2023 \u2014 There\u2019s good news for folks who lost some of their sense of taste and smell after a bout of mild COVID: New research shows this side effect largely resolves by three years after infection.<\/p>\n

Italian researchers looked at post-COVID outcomes for 88 people who lost their sense of taste and smell early in in the pandemic, with everyone contracting \u201cmild\u201d COVID-19 during March and April of 2020. Patients averaged 49 years of age at the study\u2019s start.<\/p>\n

Mild COVID was defined as an illness without any evidence of lower respiratory disease. <\/p>\n

Compared to 88 people who had never tested positive for COVID, rates of loss of smell and\/or taste (as measured by standard tests) were roughly equal three years later, said a team led by Dr. Paolo Boscolo-Rizzo<\/a> of the University of Trieste in Italy. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the 3-year study end point, olfactory dysfunction was comparable between both groups,\u201d the group reported Nov. 9 in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.<\/em><\/p>\n

As for a loss of the sense of taste (\u201cgustatory dysfunction\u201d), Boscolo-Rizzo\u2019s group similarly found \u201cno significant differences\u201d between folks who\u2019d had mild COVID and the never-COVID groups, two and three years later.<\/p>\n

The findings should be welcome news because, until now, \u201cno data exist regarding psychophysical assessment of olfactory dysfunction and gustatory dysfunction after COVID-19, to our knowledge,\u201d the team said.<\/p>\n

While many patients who went through a bout of COVID did complain of deadened senses of taste and smell, the new study finds that sense recovery does happen over time.<\/p>\n

For example, while about two-thirds (64.8%) of people with mild COVID said they\u2019d lost their sense of smell and\/or taste at the time they were ill, that number dropped to about 32% one year later, then to 20.5% two years after infection, and finally to about 16% three years later. <\/p>\n

That last number differed only slightly from the group of people who had never tested positive for COVID-19, the researchers noted.<\/p>\n

The bottom line, according to the researchers: Former COVID patients \u201cshould be reassured that a recovery of olfaction appears to continue over 3 years after initial infection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Sources<\/h2>\n