The Efficacy of Zinc as Adjunct Therapy in the Treatment of Severe Pneumonia in Children

Summary

Pneumonia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children in developing countries. Zinc deficiency leads to impairment in tissue repair and immunodeficiency in children.At least two randomised controlled trials have shown that zinc supplementation improves the outcome of severe pneumonia in children (reducing duration of hospital stay and complications related to pneumonia). However, there are conflicting results from other randomised controlled trials about its efficacy in children with pneumonia.The purpose of the current study is to determine the efficacy of zinc as adjunct therapy for in severe pneumonia in children aged 6-59 months. We hypothesize that the proportion of children who recover from severe pneumonia following zinc adjunct therapy \[(10 mg once daily for seven days) for children aged \<12 months and 20 mg daily for children aged ≥12 months\]will be higher than the proportion of children who recover from placebo therapy.

Timeline

Start

2006-09

Primary completion

2007-03

Completion

2007-03

Publications

• Background Brooks WA, Yunus M, Santosham M, Wahed MA, Nahar K, Yeasmin S, Black RE. Zinc for severe pneumonia in very young children: double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2004 May 22;363(9422):1683-8. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16252-1.
• Background Bose A, Coles CL, Gunavathi, John H, Moses P, Raghupathy P, Kirubakaran C, Black RE, Brooks WA, Santosham M. Efficacy of zinc in the treatment of severe pneumonia in hospitalized children <2 y old. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 May;83(5):1089-96; quiz 1207. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/83.5.1089.
• Background Bitarakwate E, Mworozi E, Kekitiinwa A. Serum zinc status of children with persistent diarrhoea admitted to the diarrhoea management unit of Mulago Hospital, Uganda. Afr Health Sci. 2003 Aug;3(2):54-60.
• Background Mahalanabis D, Lahiri M, Paul D, Gupta S, Gupta A, Wahed MA, Khaled MA. Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of the efficacy of treatment with zinc or vitamin A in infants and young children with severe acute lower respiratory infection. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Mar;79(3):430-6. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/79.3.430.
• Srinivasan MG, Ndeezi G, Mboijana CK, Kiguli S, Bimenya GS, Nankabirwa V, Tumwine JK. Zinc adjunct therapy reduces case fatality in severe childhood pneumonia: a randomized double blind placebo-controlled trial. BMC Med. 2012 Feb 8;10:14. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-10-14.

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