Health Check

The Brazilian city of Manaus remains in a state of crisis as its second surge of Covid-19 cases continues to overwhelm its hospitals and kill hundreds of people every day. Dr Marcus Lacerda, a clinical researcher at the FioCruz Institute talks to Claudia about the city’s medical oxygen supply shortage and why the coronavirus has caused even more suffering during this second surge of cases. One of the commonest symptoms of Covid-19 illness is the loss of the sense of smell. It returns after a few weeks in most people but a significant minority still can’t smell anything many months later. We talk to Professor Carl Philpott of Norwich Medical School who’s led an international panel of nose doctors, assessing the evidence for the best therapies to restore the olfactory sense to people who’ve lost it following respiratory infections. So-called smell training comes out top as the most evidence-based approach. Carl explains how it works and we hear from two people who are trying to regain their sense of smell. Ca