International Medical Case Reports Journal (Dec 2023)
The Forgotten Disease in the 21st Century: Scurvy Outbreak in Hawassa Central Prison, Hawassa, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia, 2023
Abstract
Ashagrachew Haile,1,* Simeon Mara,1,* Yegzeru Belete,2,* Tesfa Dejene2 1Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine and Other Health Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia; 2School of Medicine, College of Medicine and other Health Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yegzeru Belete, Email [email protected]: Dietary deficiencies in vitamin C lead to scurvy, an uncommon disease of nutritional deficiency in contemporary clinical practice. The inability of humans to synthesize vitamin C necessitates the regular consumption of vitamin C containing fruits, vegetables, or tablets.Objective: To report a series of cases that came to HUCSH from May 25th up to the 18th of July, 2023, and to describe clinical features of scurvy from an observational study of on-site prison investigation.Methods: A descriptive analysis of a case series of ten patients admitted to HUCSH between May 25th and July 18th, 2023, and on-site observational study of 67 patients over one month. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data, and SPSS version 25 was used for analysis.Results: From the case series, all of the ten patients had either unilateral or bilateral leg swelling or pain as common compliant and all of them were male prisoners with mean age of 25.6± 5.33 years and following admission, the hemoglobin value increased to 7.1± 1.34 g/dL with treatment from 4.6± 1.88 g/dL. From observational study of the prison, 67 cases were identified based on unilateral or bilateral leg swelling and/or pain, which was the presenting feature in the cluster of cases seen at HUCSH. The mean age was 23.57± 6.4 years, and each patient got therapeutic doses of ascorbic acid 500mg PO daily using directly observed therapy and follow-up visit was after two and four weeks of ascorbic acid initiation and all patients showed significant improvement.Conclusion: For clinicians in modern medicine, there should be a high index of suspicion for scurvy as a possible differential diagnosis when a patient presents with leg swelling in high-risk population, such as prisoners. Health-care providers in prison clinics need to be alert to such forgotten yet life-costly disease in resource constrained prison clinics.Keywords: anemia, prison, scurvy, vitamin C, vitamin deficiency
