Before beginning treatment, prisoners exhibited symptoms of dry or wet beriberi with neurological signs (swarming: 41%), cardiovascular signs (dyspnoea: 42%, thoracic pain: 35%), and oedemas of the lower limbs (51%).
en.wikipedia.org A serious deficiency in this vital nutrient can cause beriberi, which has the immediate symptom of severe lethargy.
en.wikipedia.org Characteristics of wet beriberi include prominent edema and cardiac involvement, whereas dry beriberi is mainly characterized by a polyneuritis.
en.wikipedia.org For example, the article on the vitamin deficiency disease beriberi speculates that it is caused by a fungus, vitamins not having been discovered at the time.
en.wikipedia.org As a prison camp physician, he treated diseases and conditions such as beriberi, dengue fever, dysentery, malaria, and malnutrition.
en.wikipedia.org