27 Million People Estimated to Have Suffered Long-Term Loss of Smell or Taste from COVID

Mar. 15, 2025

Woman smelling orange.Photo: Getty

An estimated 27 million people worldwide are still suffering what appears to be long-term negative effects on their sense of taste and/or smell after contractingCOVID-19.

According to new research published Wednesday inThe BMJ(the British Medical Association’s peer-reviewed medical journal), “about 5% ofpeople report smelland taste dysfunction six months after COVID-19.”

The journal notes that about 550 million people have reported contracting COVID-19 globally, putting that 5% at an estimated 27 million.

“Having these now millions more people worldwide with decreased ability to smell — that may simply be a newpublic healthcrisis,” Stanford University rhinologist Dr. Zara Patel (who was not involved in the study published Wednesday) toldNBC News.

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COVID-19 testing.Getty Images

“Olfactory training, started as soon as possible after the onset of symptoms, is the only disease specific intervention with evidence of efficacy for the treatment of post-infectious olfactory dysfunction,” researchers advise. “Patients are advised to sniff and try to identify a sequence of fourstrong smelling scents — usuallyrose, eucalyptus, lemon, and clove — for 15 seconds twice a day over the course of several months.”

They add, “In addition to the use of nasal steroids, which aim to resolve SARS-CoV-2 induced inflammation, other treatments that have shown some, albeit marginal, benefit in small clinical trials include intranasal vitamin A and supplements of alpha lipoic acid and omega 3 fatty acids.”

The latter study, published in theJournal of Internal Medicine, analyzed the loss of smell (with which sense of taste is commonly associated) in 2,581 COVID-19 patients from 18 hospitals in Europe between March 22 and June 3, 2020.

Sense of smell reappeared after an average of 18 to 21 days, with 95% of patients getting their smell back within six months.

Meanwhile, the loss of smell was reported in just 4% of moderate COVID-19 cases and in nearly 7% of severe-to-critical cases, that study said.

As information about thecoronavirus pandemicrapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from theCDC,WHOandlocal public-health departments.

source: people.com