Complications related to COVID-19 infection can continue for months after recovery from the disease. In fact, sluggish symptoms or long-term syndromes can be observed even in patients with mild to moderate infections.
Even with the Omicron variant, which is believed to be milder than its predecessors, doctors have warned against taking it lightly as it could lead to longer-term COVID-19.
What is Long COVID?
Even after an initial recovery, some COVID patients may have some complications that can plague them for months. Doctors call these symptoms long COVID.
What are the symptoms of prolonged COVID?
One of the most common symptoms of COVID-19 is loss of sense of smell and taste. “Lack of sense of smell affects about 70 percent of COVID patients,” Joaquim Mulol, head of an odor clinic at Barcelona’s Hospital Clinic, was quoted by AFP.
He said that a quarter of patients, who have lost their sense of smell due to COVID, do not return for months after the initial recovery. This type of syndrome for a long time is known as parosmia. It is a smell disorder that distorts the sense of smell.
In addition, other symptoms of chronic COVD include fatigue, persistent cough, breathlessness, brain fog and anxiety.
Why can it affect one’s quality of life?
Parosmia can seriously affect one’s life in the long term. Imagine living with a situation where you are eating food, but are unable to enjoy it because it no longer smells the same. Or maybe something is burning in the house, but you are completely oblivious to it because you can smell it.
“The nose allows us to smell what we eat, what we drink, to connect with the outside world,” Mulol said.
“We detect things that could be dangerous, like gas, spoiled food. When we remove that, the person is cut off from the world.”
Q. What are the long term effects of Omicron?
Infections with chronic forms of the coronavirus, including mild infections and “success” cases after vaccination, sometimes cause a lingering, debilitating long-lasting COVID syndrome.
Akiko Iwasaki, who studies viral immunology at Yale University, explained, as quoted by Reuters, “We don’t have any data yet on what the proportion of infections with Omicron … ”
“Those who consider Omicron to be ‘mild’ are putting themselves at risk of a debilitating disease that can persist for months or even years.”
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