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.
SCURVY?!
What the actual fuck
It makes a gross kind of sense: the foods with vitamin C are going to be fresh fruits and vegetables. Which are fairly expensive, relative to cheap processed food that doesn’t happen to contain vitamin C.
So, this is about how poor people are getting a disease that’s caused by not being able to buy what is somewhat more expensive foods and sounds properly peak capitalism to me.
Ascorbic acid aka Vitamin C is used in a lot of processed foods as an antioxidant. Just read the ingredients lists of a bunch of processed foods in your household and you will likely find it there.
Put some vitamin c in the processed food ffs
That’d a band-aid solution to cover up deeper problems.
Take from those who have too much and give it to those who have too little. Simple, but effective.
Well, yes. But, immediate and realistic action is more important than the hopes and dreams of an equal society.
Exactly! Vitamin C is dirt fucking cheap. It’s even in fucking Mtn dew of all things. It is not hard to add vitamin C to various cheap foods and drinks.
Of all of the medical problems in the world, scurvy is something that should absolutely happen nowhere.
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Yeah it’s very fucked up.
It’s really weird what things people choose to downvote here. You didn’t even say anything controversial (except a swear. How dare you.)
Mea culpa. I get at least one downvote all the time it seems. Probably a fan.
How can you refer to your country as a First World Nation if parts of your population still suffers from scurvy … or the near conditions of scurvy?
I’m in Canada and I’m Indigenous Canadian and I laugh every time someone refers to this country as First World … I have family who live in remote northern Indigenous communities with boil water advisories, no indoor running water, moldy houses and people living with families of 20 or more people in a two bedroom house.
Actually, what you describe is pretty typical for rural living in most first world nations.
Ruling classes don’t care about peasants out in the country because it’s easier to make more money off of city dwellers.
And I bet they don’t even have scurvy on the rez!
No they don’t … they have diabetes and heart disease.
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.
Don’t forget the chronic alcoholism!
Well, that’s most people.
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.
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
Hey France you okay?
No we’re not, but we have the (second) world’s richest man and the world’s richest woman. So according to Macron we’re just doing perfect.
Sovereign nations only focus on problems that affect their ruling class.
Anything with citrus, lime, lemon, orange, etc. it can’t cost more than 1 or 2 euros for a kilo bag. Scurvy cured if you giveaway lime slices.
I don’t get it. Is it that hard in France to get any citrus fruit? It makes no sense to me.
A kid selling lemonade will cure scurvy right?
I’m totally confused.
“Nurses noted that some of the infected children had not eaten for several days,”
Surprisingly meat also prevents scurvy.
So, another symptom of poverty is a lack of education. Odds are a lot of these people aren’t even aware of the issues that can come from feeding their children nothing but microwavables.
There’s a similar issue with malnutrition in the US among rural families that feed themselves mostly off what they can get at dollar general.
Vote extreme right again France. I’m sure it’ll solve the problem.
Very high ranking for my 2025 WTF list so far. And in France?
Le Arr.
