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Poorer children hit hardest as scurvy makes a comeback in France (www.rfi.fr)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hospital doctors and researchers from France's public health research body (Inserm) and Université Paris Cité analysed trends among nearly 900 children hospitalised with scurvy in France over a nine-year period, until November 2023.

The study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, found the biggest increase in cases was among children aged four to 10, and largely those from low-income families.

"There would seem to be a link with poverty," said Ulrich Meinzer, the study’s coordinator and a paediatrician at Robert-Debré Hospital in Paris.

He underlined that 32.9 percent of the hospitalised children came from families receiving universal medical cover – an indicator of very low income.

"Nurses noted that some of the infected children had not eaten for several days," Meinzer told French news magazine Le Nouvel Obs.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

No they don't ....... they have diabetes and heart disease.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Earlier this week, doctors identified 27 cases of scurvy caused by prolonged and severe vitamin C deficiency in northern Saskatchewan. Experts say the confirmed diagnoses highlight a broader issue with poverty and food insecurity in rural and remote communities across the country.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/dozens-of-people-in-canada-have-scurvy-and-it-s-because-of-food-1.7120194

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well, that’s most people.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's a health crisis .... it's not a crisis of a lack of food ... it's a crisis of the quality of the food

When I was very young in the late 70s, my parents still worried about having enough food. We always had just enough to get by. In 80s, the crisis changed from enough food to bowel cancers because we used lead shot to hunt birds, we were consuming enough lead through our food that it was a problem. I remember regularly biting into a lead shot when I ate goose and mom taught us kids to spit them out when we found them. Bowel cancers also increased at the time because everyone ate so much canned and preserved food at the time. Half of all my uncles died from gastrointestinal cancers. In the 90s, it felt like things got a little better and everyone started eating better. Then starting in the 2000s, everyone everywhere seemed to be just eating too much of the wrong food in great quantities ... people as young as 20 and 30 were suffering from diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, cancers and heart disease. It hasn't let up since.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

The food they provide people is absolutely horrible. But on the other hand, it’s totally possible to eat food that isn’t going to give you (most) common health problems. It’s just people can’t stop eating the stuff designed to get you addicted to food.

Eat fresh food. Don’t eat meat. I know, it’s not always easy or possible in different locations, seasons, incomes, etc.

But back to scurvy, that’s so wildly easy to prevent… James Lind (mostly) solved that problem in 1747

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Don't forget the chronic alcoholism!