Unraveling the Historical Puzzle: What is the strange case of beriberi?
                                
                                
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                                    4 min read                                
                            
                                In the late 19th century, a mysterious disease plagued populations in the Dutch East Indies, initially thought to be a bacterial infection before an accidental observation with chickens revealed its nutritional cause. This extraordinary turn of events is the strange case of beriberi, and its unraveling fundamentally changed medical science forever.