Is Scurvy Making a Comeback? Two Recent Cases Highlight How the Illness Can Appear in the Modern World

Scurvy diagnoses in Australia and Canada suggest doctors should consider testing for vitamin C deficiency in patients experiencing poverty, food insecurity and social isolation

Sarah Kuta
Daily Correspondent
October 23, 2024 3:17 p.m.



Scurvy, or vitamin C deficiency, is easy to treat with supplements and dietary changes. Pixabay


Scurvy has long been associated with early seafaring explorers, who lacked access to fresh fruits and vegetables while they traveled around the globe for years at a time. But scurvy, which is caused by vitamin C deficiency, is not just a long-forgotten illness to read about in history books—in some parts of the world, it may be making a modern comeback.

Doctors recently diagnosed scurvy in two patients living in distant parts of the planet, one in Canada and one in Australia. The cases suggest doctors should be on the lookout for this historic illness, particularly among patients experiencing poverty, food insecurity and social isolation.

The human body needs vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, to produce collagen. Collagen is essential for healthy skin, blood vessels, bones and connective tissues—without it, the body cannot function properly. Symptoms of scurvy include swollen or bleeding gums, loose teeth, fatigue, bruising, wounds that won’t heal, skin discoloration and infections.

Writing in BMJ Case Reports in September, doctors described discovering and treating scurvy in a middle-aged man in Western Australia. Because he was low on money, the man ate very few fruits and vegetables, and he sometimes skipped meals altogether. Citing his financial struggles, he stopped taking nutritional supplements he’d been prescribed after a weight loss surgery years earlier.

Though scurvy remains rare, experts worry the man might be the “canary in the coal mine,” says Tim Senior, a physician who chairs the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ specific interest group on poverty and health and was not involved with the case, to the Guardian’s Natasha May.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/is-scurvy-making-a-comeback-two-recent-cases-highlight-how-the-illness-can-appear-in-the-modern-world-180985322/