Aussie doctors blame rare scurvy case on cost-of-living crisis
The patient, whose medical history was complicated, was skipping meals and eating mainly processed food.
A WA man who could not afford nutritious food or his prescribed vitamin supplements has landed in hospital with scurvy, doctors say.
The patient had a complex medical history, having undergone a sleeve gastrectomy eight years earlier, and diagnoses of grand mal epilepsy, iron-deficiency anaemia, hepatic steatosis, hyperlipidaemia, asthma and vitamin D deficiency.
He presented with a painful petechial rash and extensive ecchymoses on both legs, which he had discovered upon waking up, the team from Perth’s Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital said.
He also experienced postural dizziness, and recent episodes of painless macroscopic haematuria, they wrote in BMJ Case Reports.
