In 2019, a woman in northern China noticed that both of her eyelids had become persistently swollen. She also had painless swollen lymph nodes in her neck and armpits. She did not see a doctor.
Over the following years, her body filled with fluid. Her abdomen swelled, her legs developed pitting edema and her muscles ached. Long-term diuretics did not help. After visits to several hospitals, doctors considered liver cirrhosis, a plausible diagnosis given her abdominal fluid, enlarged spleen and a 20-year habit of taking an over-the-counter cold remedy containing paracetamol, the drug known in the U.S. as acetaminophen, every day for headaches.
