CNN — Between 700,000 and 1.6 million people in the U.S. who had COVID, have lost or had a change in their sense of smell that lasted for more than six months, according to research published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
Most people eventually regain their sense of smell, but some may never. Prior to the pandemic, only 13.3 million adults age 40 and older, had what scientists call olfactory dysfunction or chronic olfactory dysfunction, reported CNN.
A study last year revealed that 72% of people with COVID-19 regained their sense of smell after a month, but it is definitely slower for some.
“The long-term disease burden from this, we’re literally going to be dealing with this for decades,” according to John Hayes, director of the Sensory Evaluation Center at Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
It is extremely dangerous for individuals who have lost their sense of smell or taste.
“It’s really consequential to appetite and social relations, like people have lost their sense of smell may not be able to detect if they have body odor, and can impact diet too,” Hayes said.
He stated that his research with COVID-19 patients has shown that some people have experienced three different kinds of long-term olfactory disturbances.
Some individuals lose or have a reduced sense of smell. Others may have a sense of smell that is distorted. And some may have what Hayes calls a kind of “phantom limb syndrome” for a sense of smell, where people smell things that aren’t actually there, like a persistent chemical or burning smell, according to CNN.
Many scientists still don’t know why people with COVID-19 lose their sense of smell.
“After that, there’s still a lot of mystery as to what’s going on and in many labs, including my own, we continue to work on this problem,” Dr. Sandeep Robert Datta, a neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School, said.