New research suggests the virus does not infect the nerves of the olfactory bulb but causes inflammation of the tissue, reducing the number of nerves able to transmit signals to the brain

Anosmia, the loss of smell, is a frequent and often long-term symptom associated with COVID-19 that can severely burden a person's quality of life, making it extremely difficult to taste foods, detect airborne hazards in the environment, and carry out other functions dependent on the sense.

While the devastating impacts of COVID-mediated anosmia are well known, the biological mechanisms underlying the condition remain somewhat of a mystery. In a study published in JAMA Neurology, a Johns Hopkins Medicine-led team shows that loss of smell is most likely a secondary consequence of inflammation occurring when the body's immune system responds to SARS-CoV-2 infection, rather than being a direct action of the virus.

Source - Johns Hopkins

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