Warning to anyone with common Covid symptom over risk of ‘long-term brain decline’

A COMMON Covid symptom during infection could foreshadow brain decline.

Loss of smell has affected millions globally, and currently infects around 10 per cent of cases, data suggest.

And a team of researchers from Argentina have found that those who suffer with anosmia (loss of smell) may be more likely to have cognitive impairment.

They studied hundreds of people aged between 55 to 95 years old for a year following Covid infection.

Of the 766 participants in Jujuy, Argentina, 88.4 per cent had Covid and 11.6 per cent did not (known as the control group).

Their degree of anosmia (none, mild, moderate or severe) was studied with a test in which participants had to identify three distinct smells. 

Researchers tested four areas of cognition - memory, attention, language and executive function - over the course of a year. 

Two-thirds of those who had Covid had functional memory impairment, which was severe in half of them, according to .

Some 11.7 per cent showed only problems with memory, 8.3 per cent had impairment in attention and executive function together, and 11.6 per cent had issues across all areas.

Study investigator Dr Gabriela Gonzalez-Alemán, told that the participants displayed “a predominance of memory impairment as would be seen in Alzheimer's disease”.

A large group presented “a combination of memory and attention problems”.

None of the people in the control group had problems with their smell.

But 40 per cent of those with Covid did - and all participants with severe cognitive impairment also had anosmia.

The researchers found that the severity of anosmia, rather than severity of Covid, predicted cognitive impairment.