MSN HEALTH – Up to 1.6 million people in the U.S. may have developed a long-term inability to smell due to COVID-19 infection, according to a study published Thursday in JAMA Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery.
The high number of people with chronic olfactory dysfunction (COD) as shown in the study provides another “growing public health concern of COVID-19,” the researchers wrote.
The report also indicated that many of those with COD as a result of coronavirus may never fully recover their sense of smell …
The researchers estimated the number of people who had COVID-related loss of smell based on data from a separate analysis, which concluded that between 30 percent and 75 percent of those infected suffered anosmia.
They also studied the recovery rates for people who experienced persistent COD.
They ultimately concluded that more than 700,000 and up to 1.6 million people in the United States have experienced a loss of smell that has lasted more than six months as a result of infection with COVID-19 …
The authors also noted “[t]he true number of COD may be far higher” than their results found, since “state-reported positive cases likely underestimate the true number of positive cases” … READ MORE.
