Effect of Zinc Supplementation on Morbidity due to Acute Diarrhoea in Infants and Children in Sanaa, Yemen

Object ives: To study the imp act of zinc administra tio n on the morbidity and mort ality attrib ute d to diarrhoea among child ren less than .5 years old . Methods: The study design was a randomized double blind ed con trolle d clinical trial, held at Elsabeen Hospital for Maternity and Childhood, Sana a, Yemen. The study was conducted during th e period September 200.5 to October 2006 on 180 children less than g years old with ac ute dia rrhoeal ep isodes. They were randomly allocated to two groups; one of them received a placebo and the ot her receive d zinc acetate syrup for 14 days. Both gro ups were followed up for 2 months. Results: Zinc was able to decrease the mean number of diarrh oeal ep isodes: 1.39 in th e inte rven tion gro up vers us 2.59 in the control group. It also reduced th e mean freq ue ncy of stools per day in eac h attack (3..57 in the intervention gro up vers us .5.4 7 in the con trol group) and the volume of stool in each attack during th e follow-up pe riod. Moreover. zinc was sig nificantly mor e palatab le. Conclusio n: We can co nclude from the study that administ ration of zi nc for two weeks during ac ute diarrhoeal episo des could decrease the incide nce o f fur the r diarrhoe al episodes as well as the sever ity of these episodes . The lower rat es of child mor bidi ty with zin c treatm ent re presen t substantial benefits from a simple an d inexpensive int er vent ion th at can be inco rpo rated in exis ting efforts to control diarrhoea l disease.