The nasty smell from COVID, known as parosmia, happens when the virus damages smell nerves, causing familiar odors like coffee or soap to smell foul, often like rotting things, burning plastic, or sulfur, because your brain misinterprets smell signals, turning pleasant scents into repulsive ones, a distorted sense of smell rather than a loss of it.
People report certain things—like food or body odor—smelling like garbage, rotten eggs, or chemicals. This altered sense of smell is called parosmia.
People with parosmia may be unable to experience the full range of scents in their environment. Or the odors they detect smell “wrong.” For instance, warm cookies from the oven — which smell sweet and delicious to most people — might smell unpleasant and rotten to people with parosmia.
One of the most common causes of strange smells in the nose, including ammonia or metallic odors, is a sinus infection. When the sinuses become inflamed and filled with mucus, bacteria can start to grow, producing unpleasant odors. This kind of smell may be described as metallic, sour, or chemical-like.
How Long Does Parosmia Last? The good news is parosmia improves with time in most cases. People report a change to their sense of smell about three to four months after infection.
Sinus infection odor treatment at home
At-home treatment options could include taking medications to help reduce inflammation, as well as using a nasal rinse (saline) to clear out the sinuses. Over-the-counter decongestants and pain relievers may also help to reduce sinus infection odor.
Some people may have symptoms that get worse about 5 to 7 days after symptoms start. Most people with COVID-19 have mild to moderate symptoms. But COVID-19 can cause serious medical complications and lead to death. Older adults and people who already have medical conditions are at greater risk of serious illness.
One of the long-term symptoms of COVID-19 is phantosmia, a type of Olfactory Disorder (OD) that has deleterious impacts on patients' quality of life.
Our findings suggest that humans can detect individuals with an acute respiratory infection through smell, albeit only slightly better than chance. Humans, similar to other animals, are likely able to use sickness odor cues to guide adaptive behaviors that decrease the risk of contagion, such as social avoidance.
Phantosmia may be caused by a head injury or upper respiratory infection. It also can be caused by aging, trauma, temporal lobe seizures, inflamed sinuses, brain tumors, certain medicines and Parkinson's disease. Phantosmia also can result from a COVID-19 infection.
Nonenal® (also known as 2-Nonenal) is a naturally occurring compound responsible for the distinct odor associated with aging. It typically appears after age 40, becoming more noticeable in both men and women.
Unusual COVID-19 symptoms: What are they?
We get it — it's a common problem, but sometimes it can make you self-conscious (“wait, can other people smell that, too?!”) and affect your confidence. Inner thigh odor is caused by various factors, including excessive sweating, fungal infections, poor hygiene, and hormonal changes.
Symptoms of COVID-19
You can be contagious for 1-2 days before symptoms appear and up to 8-10 days following symptom onset. You can spread the virus even if you do not have symptoms. Social distancing should continue until, for at least 24 hours, symptoms improve and you're fever-free without medications.
An infected sinus releases mucus that has a foul odor. The mucus drains to the back of your throat, resulting in bad breath. Also, when you have a sinus infection, there may be bacteria trapped in the nasal cavities, which produces an unpleasant smell.
A person with kidney failure may have breath that smells like ammonia or urine. Serious liver disease can make breath smell musty or like garlic and rotten eggs. Compounds that are transported through the blood can also be released through your sweat glands. That can make your armpits and skin smell bad.
What does fetor hepaticus smell like? Healthcare providers who recognize the smell of fetor hepaticus have described it as musty, pungent, oddly sweet and occasionally fecal (poop-like).
Signs and Symptoms
Parosmia is a well-documented consequence of smell loss associated with Covid 19. Those who experience this qualitative olfactory disorder during recovery find that the odour of common foods and household items is distorted, and the experience can range from merely altered to profoundly disgusting.
Several conditions may cause a bad smell in the nose, including sinusitis, tooth/ mouth infections, dry mouth, some medications, some foods/drinks, and olfactory damage. Typically, a bad smell in the nose is not life-threatening but can decrease the quality of life.
The average recovery time for those who have mild or normal cases of COVID-19 or flu is between one and two weeks. If you have COVID-19, the CDC recommends isolation from others until your symptoms are getting better and you are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication.
Key Points: In a highly immune adult population, median SARS-CoV-2 viral loads by cycle threshold and antigen measurements peaked on the fourth day of symptoms, with implications for testing practice.
COVID-19 symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. The symptoms of a cold may come on gradually, while the flu usually starts abruptly. Below is a chart that may help determine which illness you have. Symptoms can vary widely with each of these illnesses.