The Covid-19 virus is evolving and so are the symptoms… The new variants currently in circulation no longer have the loss of smell and taste as symptoms. Explanations.
- Fewer and fewer Covid-19 patients are losing taste and smell.
- The loss of the senses of smell and taste is therefore no longer a widespread symptom of Covid-19.
- A quarter of patients who suffered from these symptoms in 2021 have yet to regain their senses.
With the summer and the drop in cases, Covid-19 is being forgotten. And yet, this disease is still present. “Nearly 1,000 new deaths from Covid-19 continue to occur each week in the region, explains Hans Kluge, the regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Europe, during a press conference last June. “Covid-19 continues to evolve and depending on the variants in circulation, the symptoms are no longer the same…
Loss of smell and taste no longer a symptom of Covid-19
The results of a new study, published in an otorhinolaryngology journal, are rather positive regarding the symptoms of Covid-19. Scientists show that fewer and fewer patients suffer from loss of taste and smell.
“Around three out of a hundred people affected by Covid have their sense of smell affected”says Evan Reiter, medical director of a center dedicated to smell and taste located in the American state of Virginia, in the United States, in the washington post.
Covid-19 evolves and collides with immunity and vaccination
For scientists, the disappearance of these symptoms – the loss of olfactory and taste senses – is explained for two main reasons: the immunity gradually acquired by humans against Covid-19 and vaccination.
To arrive at their results, the scientists studied data from more than seven million patients who tested positive for the coronavirus from April 2020 to October 2022. They then calculated the risk of loss of smell and taste during the most infection, categorized according to alpha, delta and omicron variants. Results: progressively, the patients lost their sense of taste and smell less… These symptoms are no longer distinctive signs of the disease, whereas it has long been the case.
Still, for patients who have been affected by one of these symptoms, the fight is not over. Indeed, a study published in the journal The Laryngoscope last June showed that a quarter of the patients affected in 2021 have not recovered their senses of smell and taste.