Zinc supplements 'may slash death risk among kids with pneumonia'

Washington, Feb 8 (ANI): Scientists have shown how zinc supplements drastically improve children's chances of surviving respiratory tract infections including pneumonia.

The study also claims that the increase in survival due to zinc on top of antibiotics, was even greater for HIV infected children.

In a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial, 350 children, aged from six months to five years old, were treated with standard antibiotic therapy at Mulago Hospital. Half the children were given zinc and the other half a placebo.

The researchers from Makerere University found that while there was no difference between zinc and placebo in the time it took to recover from the infection, measured by time it took to return to a normal temperature, reparatory rate and oxygen saturation, the risk of death between the groups was very different.

4 percent of the children taking zinc died compared to 12 percent of the children without zinc. This means that an extra eight out of 100 children could have been saved by taking zinc. Among the HIV infected children this rose to 26 out of every 100.

"Zinc is known to bolster the immune system and zinc deficiency is rife all over the developed, and developing, world. In Uganda, where this study was performed, zinc deficiency in some areas can be as high as 70 percentWe would only need to give 13 of these children with pneumonia zinc on top of their antibiotics to save one life. This equates to about 4 USD - a small price to pay," James Tumwine said.

The study has been published in the journal BMC Medicine. (ANI)