United States: A nutritional disease that was earlier associated with ancient sailors of the sea region is now asserting itself in the present society.
Researchers in the US and other countries are concerned the disease might be on the rise, especially among groups at higher risk of malnutrition, including children with touch disorders, the elderly, those with difficulty chewing or swallowing, and others who cannot easily access or afford enough fresh food rich in Vitamin C.
About the disease: Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease associated with acute and chronic deficiencies of vitamin C. The human body needs vitamin C for a variety of purposes including immunity boost, as well as repairing damaged tissues and support of the connective tissues since the body will lack the ability to produce collagen, scurvy victims will experience skin breakages, and affected gums, lesion, easy bruising, gastrointestinal and respiratory bleeding, and death, if untreated, gizmodo.com reported.
Scottish physician James Lind discovered in – the 1700s that spouse and other fruits, which contain vitamin C, could cure and prevent Scurvy, but it took until the early twentieth century to be widely accepted.
Therefore, because of that knowledge, scurvy is pretty rare in most places in the world. But recent research and case reports suggest it’s becoming a more relevant issue again.
Recent cases
For example, one study published this July that looked at pediatric hospital admissions across the United States revealed that the incidence of Scurvy reported in children had more than tripled between 2016 and 2020.
The doctors in Canada reported a specific case of Scurvy involving a 65-year-old woman in early October. They cautioned that the condition “should not be considered only an archaic diagnosis of 18th-century seafarers.”
Moreover, another team of researchers in Australia also reported scurvy in a middle-aged man who underwent bariatric surgery.
According to Grant Hogue, senior author of the July study and a pediatric spine surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, “The incidence of scurvy diagnosis is increasing among children in the U.S.,” gizmodo.com reported.
Prevalence of Scurvy in the US
A 2021 research showed that as much as 41 percent of American adults lack sufficient amounts of vitamin C in their diet; 6 percent, for instance, matched the formal definition of the deficiency.
However, most of us today take less vitamin C than is healthy, and it is only when deprived of this vital nutrient for a couple of months that one is bound to show signs.
Even in Hogue and his team’s study, they could only pinpoint 265 patients with the condition during the course of the study, amidst nearly 20 million patients for the condition in total.
However, doctors like Ebubekir Daglilar, who co-wrote a review on Scurvy in 2023, do contend that the cases of Scurvy today are missed by doctors today and that we could potentially be doing more for those who ended up with the disease.