A illness from another time is making a comeback: scurvy is returning to France. Caused by a vitamin C deficiency, this disease causes bone pain, muscle weakness, or tooth loosening. In the most extreme cases, it can even prove fatal. Virtually disappeared from Europe at the end of the 20th century, scurvy is increasing again due to increasing insecurity.
A year ago, Professor Ulrich Meinzer, pediatrician at the Robert Debré hospital in Paris, decided to launch a study, seeing cases multiply among his young patients for several months. “That intrigued us a lot,” he recalls on RTL, stressing that the disease had “completely disappeared” from France. “Our study reveals an increase in hospitalizations, estimated at 34.5% after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic“, details the specialist. The study identifies a total of nearly 900 cases of scurvy in children since 2015. Two-thirds of these children became ill after the pandemic.
Scurvy is caused by a deficiency of vitamin C. It is sometimes called “sailor's disease” because it proliferated at sea between the 16th and 19th centuries. Sailors fell ill easily due to lack of access to fruits and vegetables. According to the study, inflation, which increases precariousness, is responsible for its return. Almost all of the young patients in this study also suffered from malnutrition.
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