“We shouldn’t have to be talking about scurvy in 2024 — in Saskatchewan of all places.”
Highlighting what it calls “alarming cases” of scurvy in northern Saskatchewan, the Opposition NDP continued its plea for the Saskatchewan Party government to address food prices and cost of living.
Doctors in La Ronge have treated 27 cases of scurvy within the last six months, bringing to light the severe impact of food insecurity in the province’s north.
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C. Symptoms vary from fatigue and joint pain to hair changes, wounds not healing and loss of teeth.
“We shouldn’t have to be talking about scurvy in 2024 — in Saskatchewan of all places,” Shadow Minister for Northern Affairs Jordan McPhail said on Tuesday at a press conference in Saskatoon.
“The Sask. Party government needs to stop piling on the costs and start providing cost-of-living relief, like what the Manitoba government is doing.”
McPhail and Shadow Health Minister Vicki Mowat on Tuesday shared images of items for sale at a grocery store in Stony Rapids, located approximately 1,040 kilometres north of Saskatoon. A two-pound container of grapes was $19.99 and a four-litre jug of milk was $18.09.
Stony Rapids is one of the northern communities with road access. Grocery costs in more remote communities are often even higher, McPhail noted.
“Fuel is a huge factor and the government can provide some relief today by suspending the provincial gas tax and removing the PST from groceries,” he said.
“This would lower transportation costs and make essential items more affordable.”
The Lac La Ronge Indian Band recently hired Dr. Jeff Irvine to chair an investigation into vitamin C deficiency among its members and the wider community. Of 50 vitamin C blood tests, 27 were confirmed to be deficient, pointing to scurvy, and 10 showed low levels.
Despite scurvy’s rarity in modern medicine, the La Ronge diagnoses aligned with findings from a recent First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment survey, which revealed 42 per cent of respondents couldn’t afford balanced meals.
A 2022 Saskatchewan Health Authority report noted the average weekly cost of nutritious food for a family of four was about $291, rising to $358 in the North and $464 in the Far North.
Fresh produce is hard to come by in the La Ronge area, and foraging for it has seasonal limitations.
For local retailers, coordinating a delivery of fresh food isn’t usually worth the minimal profit. The long travel distance leads to spoilage, and fuel costs increase the consumer price.
Traditional foods like rosehip, Labrador tea, spruce needles, fireweed and mint have higher levels of vitamin C. Moderate amounts can be found in animal heart, liver and kidneys. But obtaining those foods is weather-dependent.
Further north, the problem intensifies, and the solution for many is out of reach. The more pressing issue is the ongoing stress of meeting basic needs, including stable housing.
“You can’t be talking to people about healthy eating when they don’t have a place to live,” Irvine said.
A colleague diagnosed a case of scurvy in May and “started to get some red flags” from other patients, at which time his colleague started noticing “even more signs and symptoms of scurvy in these other patients,” Irvine said.
One of Dr. Yoseph Atreyu’s patients came to him with joint pain; during examination, Atreyu noticed a curious pattern of corkscrew hairs on the person’s knee. He ordered a blood test, which showed vitamin C levels low enough to match a scurvy diagnosis.
“This person wasn’t low economic status, had a good paying job, ate well and was still having the issue,” he said. “This was the first case that I’ve confirmed. But thinking back in the past, I do wonder if I’ve seen it before.”
It’s also led him to wonder about more vulnerable populations, including children. All patients in the Lac La Ronge study were over 20 years old and 79 per cent were Indigenous.
— with Canadian Press files
The Saskatoon Star Phoenix has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe.
With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.