U.S. Public Health Serviceexternal icon.Some people who caught COVID-19 but never got respiratory symptoms suffered extreme fatigue, difficulty concentrating, heart damage, or inflamed organs.
Symptoms could last weeks or months.Before the pandemic, Deblina was part of the CDC mission to eradicate the last remnants of polio.
For 10 years, she trekked with teams through brushland, rivers, and jungles to remote villages, where she saw many people debilitated by the disease.
Though it attacks the spinal cord and causes paralysis, polio is more straightforward than COVID-19.“After a polio infection, there’s a remote possibility the patient might get a post-polio syndrome,” she says.