Scurvy Hits Sydney

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 55, 6 March 1943, Page 3

Scurvy Hits Sydney

Scurvy is increasing among children in Sydney. Shortage of citrus fruits (giving Vitamin C) i 3 blamed. Scurvy causes exhaustion, muscular pains, bleeding gums, ulcers, general frailty, and debility; in former times was responsible for many deaths among sailors and soldiers in besieged cities. Commonwealth health authorities are; now working on a plan to produce a' synthetic vitamin C, which would be j available to children in tablet form. The Director-General of Health (Dr. E. Sydney Morris), stating this, said he understood the tablets would be distributed through baby health centres. “We are finding more- cases of scurvy, and the position wants to be watched,” said Dr. Alorris. (Hospitals also report more cases). “Apparently the demand for citrus fruits is so great that it cannot bo met,” he 3aid. Vitamin C, Dr.! Alorris pointed out, was also to be had from fresh green-leaf vegetables. j In places where it is not actually short, the high price of citrus fruit js putting it beyond the reach of many

families. Smallish oranges are 2d to 3d in the suburbs. An official of the Defence Foodstuffs Department said that one-third of the total orange crop had been taken over for Service requirements. It was being processed into fruit juice, and sent to troops in New Guinea, who urgently needed vitamin C products. The remainder of the citrus crop was still available to the public.