The virus is leading to growing numbers of youngsters developing parosmia – a disorder where people experience strange and often unpleasant smell distortions, researchers found.

For those with the condition, chocolate can smell like petrol and lemon can smell like rotting cabbage.

Smell experts at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Fifth Sense, a charity for people affected by smell and taste disorders, say children may be finding it particularly hard to eat foods they once loved.

Professor Carl Philpott, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said in many cases the condition is “putting children off their food, and many may be finding it difficult to eat at all”.