Marcel Kuttab has been experiencing parosmia Ñ a distortion in the senses of smell and taste Ñ since contracting COVID-19 in March of 2020.
Membership has swelled in existing support groups, and new ones have sprouted. A fast-growing British-based Facebook parosmia group has more than 14,000 members. And parosmia-related ventures are gaining followers, from podcasts to smell training kits. Viegut worries that she may not be able to detect a gas leak or a fire. That is a real risk, as shown in January by the experience of a family in Waco, Texas, that did not detect that their house was on fire. Nearly all members had lost their sense of smell because of COVID; they escaped, but the house was destroyed.
In 2020, parosmia became remarkably widespread, frequently impacting patients with the novel coronavirus who lost their sense of smell and then largely regained it before a distorted sense of smell and taste began. “I would be the one who could tell when the garbage had to go out,” said Franklin, a hospital occupational therapist. But she lost all sense of taste and smell in early April 2020, immediately after contracting COVID.
Confounded by the cavalcade of smell and taste problems, scientists around the world are paying unusual attention to the human olfactory system, the areas of the nose and brain where smells are processed. Those neurons are held together by a scaffolding of supporting cells, called sustentacular cells, that contain a protein called the ACE2 receptor. A study published in July led by Harvard researchers found that the protein acts as a code for the virus to enter and destroy the supporting cells.
Or you could imagine an old-fashioned telephone company switchboard, where operators start pushing plugs into the wrong jacks, said John Hayes, director of the Sensory Evaluation Center at Pennsylvania State University. That’s why Katie Boeteng and two other women with anosmia formed the first known U.S. group for those with smell and taste disorders in December.
“People are so desperate about their smell loss, because, after all, your sense of smell is also your sense of self,” said AbScent founder Chrissi Kelly, who lost her ability to smell for two years after a sinus infection in 2012. She also experienced parosmia.
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