BioMed Central Blog

Zinc therapy averts pneumonia related childhood death

Zinc deficiency is one of the most prevalent risk factors for nutrient-related diseases, and young children in developing countries are at highest risk of zinc deficiency because of inadequate dietary intake. As zinc is essential to most cells involved in immune function, its deficiency can decrease immunocompetence, and therefore leaves children in particular susceptible to infections.

Respiratory infections such as pneumonia are one of the leading causes of child and infant death, and more than 2 million children under the age of 5 die from pneumonia every year.  There is a need for integrated child survival programmes particularly in the developing world, where other diseases such as HIV/AIDS also threaten the survival of children. In view of this, UNICEF and WHO  have launched a Global Action Plan which provides strategies for the prevention and control of pneumonia in community settings in the developing world.

Towards this goal, a new study published in BMC Medicine reports that providing zinc supplements in addition to standard antibiotics to children suffering from severe pneumonia can drastically improve the chances of survival.  This double-blind randomised, placebo-controlled trial led by Prof James Tumwine from Makerere University in Uganda reports that even though there was no difference in the recovery time between the zinc and placebo groups, the risk of death between the two groups was significantly different. 4% of the children taking zinc supplements died compared to 12% of the children who did not receive zinc. The increase in survival was even greater for HIV infected children with severe pneumonia, where 26 out of every 100 children could be saved by treatment with zinc in addition to antibiotics.

This promising study highlights how a simple, affordable intervention can substantially reduce mortality rates in vulnerable children from the developing world, and highlights the need to consider similar treatments to prevent further avoidable deaths.

Posted by Sabina Alam at 15:06    Comments (1)