According to reports, people with long COVID are reporting unusual and rare symptoms, which have never been heard of before. While loss of sense of smell and taste and distortion of smell or officially referred to as “parosmia” has been observed among young people as well as healthcare officials, a strong stench of fish, sulphur and a sickly odour of burning has come to the surface as new Long COVID symptoms
In an interview, an ENT surgeon, Professor Nirmal Kumar has said that the new symptoms of Long COVID are “very strange and very unique.” Kumar, who is the president of ENT UK (a professional membership body representing Ear, Nose, and Throat surgery) was the first medical worker to identify loss of smell as a symptom of COVID-19.
According to Kumar, “This virus has an affinity for the nerves in the head and in particular, the nerve that controls the sense of smell.” “But it probably affects other nerves too and it affects, we think, neurotransmitters – the mechanisms that send messages to the brain… Some people are reporting hallucinations, sleep disturbances, alterations in hearing. We don’t know exact mechanisms, but we are finding ways to try and help patients recover,” he adds.