Is scurvy, a disease associated with sea explorers due to
low Vitamin C, making a comeback? Seven patients have been diagnosed in
Australia with scurvy. Seven diabetic patients in the Westmead Hospital in
western Sydney have the rare ‘archaic’ disease. Professor Jenny Gunton, head of
the Centre for Diabetes, Obesity and Endocrinology research at the Westmead
Institute, discovered the cases when a patient’s leg wound didn’t heal. She says there may be more cases in the wider community.
There’s no direct link between scurvy and diabetes,
except that some diabetics have a poor diet with low Vitamin C, the ascorbic
acid needed for the body to make collagen essential for skin, blood vessels,
bone and cartilege.
Symptoms are tiredness, lack of appetite, joint pain,
shortness of breath, irritability, leg dicomfort, and easily bruised skin, with
ulceration of the gums and loss of teeth in severe cases – and even bleeding to
the eyes and protruding eyeballs – and ultimately death. Treatment is Vitamin C
tablets, injections or food, such as oranges, lemons, kiwifruit, strawberries,
blackcurrants, guava, papaya, tomatoes, carrots, capsicum, broccoli, potatoes,
cabbage, spinach, liver, and oysters.
Australian health authorities generally do not test for
scurvy because it was thought to have been eradicated. Sailors and seafarers in
the 16th-18th centuries got scurvey from lack of fruit and vegetables while
onboard for months and years without adequate healthy food. Scurvy – scorbutus – resulted in the death of
many sailors. Cases today are extremely rare. It is so rare that it is
considered to be an ‘archaic’ disease.
Image (top): blather.com
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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