新冠肺炎的后遗症可能比你想象的更持久。一项跨国研究显示，全球约5%的新冠肺炎患者会长期存在嗅觉或味觉丧失问题，尤其是女性患者。

 

Millions of people worldwide may have long-term smell or taste problems as a result of Covid-19, with women more likely to be affected¹, a study suggests.

一项研究显示，全球数百万新冠肺炎患者可能会长期存在嗅觉或味觉丧失问题，尤其是女性患者。

 

About 5% of adults infected with the coronavirus may develop long-lasting changes to their sense of smell or taste, according to the research published in the BMJ.

发表在《英国医学期刊》的研究报告指出，约5%的新冠肺炎成年患者的味觉或嗅觉会发生持久性改变。

 

With more than 550m confirmed Covid-19 cases to date, it means there may be long-term smell deficiencies for 15 million people and taste problems for 12 million (with an unknown overlap² of those suffering both) for at least six months after an infection.

迄今为止全世界共有超5.5亿例新冠肺炎确诊病例，这意味着分别有1500万和1200万患者在感染病毒至少6个月后可能面临长期的嗅觉和味觉功能障碍，其中一部分患者嗅觉味觉都会出现问题。

 

Given the devastating³ effect that loss of smell and taste can have on quality of life and wellbeing, this will have a huge impact on global health, the team of international researchers say.

开展该研究的跨国团队表示，考虑到嗅觉和味觉丧失对生活质量和幸福感的毁灭性作用，这将对全球健康状况产生巨大影响。

 

Loss or change of sense of smell or taste can lead to "severe distress⁴", they say, and they call for health systems to be better prepared to support people who often feel "isolated⁵" when dismissed by clinicians.

研究团队指出，嗅觉或味觉丧失或改变会导致“严重后果”，他们呼吁卫生系统更好地给予支持，这些患者在求助临床医生无果后经常会感到“孤立无援”。

 

Daily activities such as smelling coffee and testing the flavour of food can become "disgusting and emotionally distressing⁶", experts say.

专家称，对这些患者而言，闻咖啡和品尝食物等日常活动会变得“恶心而痛苦”。

 

The study reviewed data from 18 studies involving 3,699 patients. The researchers used modelling to estimate how many people go on to suffer from altered taste or smell for at least six months after a Covid-19 infection.

该研究回顾了涵盖3699名患者的18项研究的数据。研究人员通过建模来估计有多少人在感染新冠病毒至少6个月后嗅觉或味觉发生改变。

 

They concluded that an estimated 5.6% of patients have smell dysfunction for at least six months and 4.4% have altered taste.

研究人员估计，分别有5.6%和4.4%的患者在感染病毒至少6个月后出现嗅觉和味觉功能障碍。

 

Women were less likely to recover their sense of smell and taste than men, and patients with greater initial severity of smell loss and those with nasal congestion⁷ were less likely to recover their sense of smell.

相比男性患者，女性患者的嗅觉和味觉更难以恢复，初期嗅觉丧失和鼻塞症状严重的患者更难以恢复嗅觉。

 

One female patient told researchers that she had yet to recover her sense of smell 27 months after her initial infection.

一名女性患者告诉研究人员，她在感染新冠病毒27个月后，嗅觉还未恢复。

 

Prof Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London, who was not involved with the research, said: "Studies such as this alert us to the hidden burden out there of people suffering with persistent⁸ symptoms but perhaps not having thought it worth contacting the GP on the assumption there wouldn't be much to be done."

没有参与该研究的伦敦帝国理工学院免疫学教授丹尼·阿尔特曼表示：“这类研究让我们察觉到持续性症状给患者带来的隐性负担，这些人可能以为没必要看医生，因为他们觉得看了也没用。”

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