'Like metal and death': Long Covid leaves Dubai mother with distorted taste and smell

Altered senses are common and usually short-lived for people who catch coronavirus – but for some they linger

Em Ray with her son Sam and daughter Maya at home in Mirdif, Dubai. Pawan Singh / The National

A glass of ice cold Coca-Cola used to be Em Ray’s favourite drink on a hot and sunny day.

Now, she says it tastes like “metal and death”.

Other food and drink also taste different since she contracted Covid-19, an illness that commonly affects taste and smell temporarily for sufferers.

For some, like Ms Ray, this symptom lingers in the form of long Covid.

Cucumber I can’t eat. It tastes like soil. Coke tastes bad. I can’t stomach it at all

Em Ray,
Dubai resident

For a long time she had no sense of smell or taste whatsoever. But about a year after she caught Covid-19 in October 2020, her senses gradually started coming back.

“I could taste things like chicken, bananas, orange juice and apple juice,” said Ms Ray, a teacher who lives in Dubai with her two children, Maya, 7, and Sam, 6.

“That was nice, a very pleasant experience to realise you can taste something you have been eating and drinking [instead of tasting] nothing.”

It soon became apparent that some things did not taste the same at all.

“Coke tastes bad. I can’t stomach it at all. It tastes of metal and death. It’s what I feel is the worst taste you can have,” she said.

“Sprite is the same taste. The only thing I can manage if I really want a cold sparkling, fizzy drink is Fanta. The orange is OK.

Eight symptoms of long Covid: in pictures

Sufferers from long Covid often report having difficulty in falling or staying asleep. Alamy

Chest pain can be one of the more acute symptom of long Covid. Getty Images

Fatigue is a common long-term symptom. Getty Images

Anxiety and depression can persist after being infected with coronavirus.

One of the first reported symptoms of Covid-19 was a lack of taste and smell, which can persist even after testing negative for the virus. Getty Images

So-called brain fog is a common long-term symptom of Covid-19. Getty Images

Even the most active people can suffer from prolonged joint and muscle pain after contracting Covid-19. Getty Images

Some people complain of feeling tightness in the chest for months after supposedly having recovered from Covid-19. Getty Images

“Apple and blackcurrant squash, which I used to drink a lot of, tastes like the ash from a fire. It’s absolutely horrendous.”

The list goes on. She can no longer stomach many fruit and vegetables, either.

“Cucumber I can’t eat. It tastes like soil. It tastes like you are just eating soil, which is really weird because cucumber is mainly water, so I have no idea where that taste is coming from.

“It’s really nasty.”

When she first recovered from Covid-19, Ms Ray said she survived on smoothies, because without her sense of taste it seemed pointless for her to eat normal meals. But she says even smoothies are now undrinkable.

“I have found those same smoothies I used to drink, I can’t stomach. They don’t taste right.

“I intend to try to find a smoothie I can stomach and go back to them.

“I found pineapple. I made myself a virgin pina colada the other day and that was palatable.”

Her ability to smell has also been altered – except rather than being unable to smell anything, she said she often smells things that are not there.

"Sometimes I will smell things that don’t exist. And I will check with my daughter and see if she can smell that and she will say 'no, I can’t smell anything'," said Ms Ray.

Changes to taste and smell are common – and sometimes the only symptom – of a Covid-19 infection, said Dr Brijesh Bharadwaj, a specialist in internal medicine at NMC Royal Hospital DIP Dubai.

Loss of taste or smell can be partial, or total. But more often than not people regain those senses after they have recovered from the virus.

Experts say the problem occurs in about half of cases but doctors say the vast majority of people recover their sense of smell or taste within a couple of months.

"Nearly all patients are recovered in six months," said Dr Bharadwaj.

The cause is still not understood.

Doctors puzzled by long-term Covid effect

"Researchers explain that the virus directly affects the taste buds causing this abnormality," said Dr Karthikeyan Dakshinamoorthy, a specialist in internal medicine at NMC Royal Hospital DIP Dubai.

"We have seen patients who do not feel the taste of spices in food.

"Some patients even had stopped eating non-vegetarian diet due to altered taste. Some people had bitter taste while eating fruits."

Changes to taste or smell may not seem like a big deal at first, said Dr Hardik Patel, a specialist pulmonologist at the same hospital.

But lingering issues can have a significant effect.

"It seems rather insignificant at first but contributes significantly to one’s well-being and one’s dietary intake. Gustatory sensation plays an integral role in food intake, especially in patients with reduced appetites, thus leading to a delay in recovery of the patients."

Covid-19 symptoms were mild for Ms Ray. A persistent low-grade fever, fatigue and the loss of her taste and smell were her only symptoms.

But her quality of life has been affected by the persistent taste and smell issues.

"It’s the most bizarre thing. I am still left with these odd symptoms. Luckily it’s now down to a handful of things," she said.

"I have had bronchitis and laryngitis since then. But this just continues as an underlying thing that doesn’t go."

In learning to live with it, she has found she can drink apple juice with club soda as an alternative to Coca-Cola.

"I am having a lot of that. It gives me the freshness that I used to crave on a hot day.

"And apart from that I am just keeping things bland. No sauces, no salt, no pepper. Not that I really had much before, but definitely not now."