Scurvy - Symptoms of scurvy

The symptoms of scurvy usually begin three months after a person stops getting enough vitamin C in their diet.

In adults, the initial symptoms of scurvy include:

feeling very tired and weak all the time (fatigue)
a general sense of feeling "out of sorts", such as feeling irritable and miserable all the time
pain in your limbs, particularly your legs
the appearance of small red-blue spots on your skin

These spots develop where individual hairs grow out of the skin (hair follicles), and they often occur on the shins. Hairs in affected areas usually twist around like corkscrews and break away easily. Without treatment, the spots can grow and merge to create large dark patches on your skin.

Other symptoms then follow, including:

swollen gums, which become soft and vulnerable to bleeding (teeth may feel loose or fall out)
severe pain in your joints caused by bleeding inside the joints
shortness of breath, particularly after periods of physical activity
redness and swelling in recently healed wounds (new wounds may fail to heal)
easily bruised skin

Left untreated, scurvy can cause jaundice (yellowing of skin and eyes), oedema (swelling caused by a build-up of fluid) and potentially fatal heart problems.

Scurvy in infants

In infants, the initial symptoms of scurvy include:

lack of appetite
irritability
poor weight gain
diarrhoea
high temperature (fever) of 38ºC (100.4ºF) or above

As the condition progresses, additional symptoms include:

pain and tenderness in the legs, which is often severe – this can make a young child very upset when they're having their nappy changed
as with adults, the appearance of reddish-bluish spots on the skin
the eyes bulging outwards