Doctors call for more scurvy testing in B.C. in light of vitamin C deficiency data [Video]

Nearly 700 people in British Columbia have been reported to have a vitamin C deficiency in the past decade, according to data obtained by CBC News, prompting doctors to raise questions about the prevalence of scurvy — a life-threatening disease thought to be a thing of the past — in the province.

CBC News asked B.C.’s Ministry of Health for data on the number of confirmed cases of scurvy dating back 10 years, after the disease was detected earlier this year in Toronto and in a northern Saskatchewan community.

The health ministry said it does not collect data on scurvy because it’s not an infectious disease. Instead, it provided CBC News with the number of known instances of ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, deficiency — the closest systematically reported data it says it has.

Scurvy can occur from having a severe deficiency of vitamin C, though not everyone with low levels of the vitamin develops the disease, …