NEW YORK: Late in March, Laura Gross, 72, was recovering from gall bladder surgery in her Fort Lee, New Jersey, home when she became sick again.
Her throat, head and eyes hurt, her muscles and joints ached and she felt like she was in a fog. Her diagnosis was COVID-19. Four months later, these symptoms remained
Gross sees a primary care doctor and specialists including a cardiologist, pulmonologist, endocrinologist, neurologist and gastroenterologist.
"I've had a headache since April. I've never stopped running a low-grade temperature," she said.
Studies of COVID-19 patients keep uncovering new complications associated with the disease.
With mounting evidence that some COVID-19 survivors face months, or possibly years, of debilitating complications, healthcare experts are beginning to study possible long-term costs.
Bruce Lee of the City University of New York (CUNY) Public School of Health estimated that if 20 per cent of the US population contracts the virus, the one-year post-hospitalisation costs would be at least US$50 billion, before factoring in longer-term care for lingering health problems.
Without a vaccine, if 80 per cent of the population became infected, that cost would balloon to US$204 billion.
Some countries hit hard by the coronavirus – including the United States, Britain and Italy – are considering whether these long-term effects can be considered a "post-COVID syndrome", according to Reuters interviews with about a dozen doctors and health economists.