Ammonia, rotten apples and addle skin: what does the coronavirus "smell" like

A blogger from St. Petersburg under the nickname Textinthepiter fell ill with covid in early summer in a rather mild form, but later she started having problems, which she talks about in her publication.

After spending three weeks at home, and about a week with a temperature of 37.5, the author recovered, but the sense of smell and taste began to slowly return only after a month.

Further - more: there are problems with the kidneys, though fortunately already solved. But a few weeks ago, she noticed that very strange smells haunted her - either rotten apples, or skin, or ammonia, and they accompanied her everywhere. So the hookah began to smell like onions, and stuffed peppers began to smell like glue...

Meanwhile, only one article was found on the network on this topic, where it is said that this phenomenon is called parosmia, that is, a distortion of the sense of smell, and many suffer from it after covid. Doctors simply admit that they do not know how to treat it. In the meantime, the poor are forced to unite in network groups to exchange their observations and advice...

For example, among English-speaking bloggers, the non-profit organization AbScent is engaged in supporting the unfortunate, which includes otorhinolaryngologists who share their knowledge about this problem. Experts and patients in these communities claim that over time, the sense of smell will be fully restored.

It sounds optimistic, but so far life with these symptoms is difficult to bear: with an impaired perception of odors, not only is it impossible to eat normally, it constantly causes a gag reflex. In theory, people stop smelling when the olfactory cleft - a small area in the roof of the nose that is adjacent to the olfactory neurons - becomes inflamed. This inflammation is provoked by the sustentacular cells, on which the neurons are held. They are the first to be attacked by the coronavirus. Doctors say that olfactory neurons can regenerate, and their regeneration can be directed with the help of "physiotherapy for the nose" - that is, training the smell...