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The findings stem from a pooled analysis of data from 22 relevant studies, including 16 that focused on the benefits of zinc in 15,231 children with acute diarrhoea and six that looked at 2968 children with persistent diarrhoea.

Zinc use cut the average duration of both acute and persistent diarrhoea, Dr Marek Lukacik, from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, and colleagues report. In addition, zinc therapy reduced the average stool frequency by 18.8 percent and 12.5 percent in children with acute and persistent diarrhoea, respectively.

Zinc supplements also helped prevent diarrhoea. Treatment with zinc supplements reduced the occurrence of both types of diarrhoea by roughly 18 percent relative to placebo.

Nasty side-effects
On the downside, in most of the studies, zinc was more likely than placebo to cause vomiting.

"On the basis of these findings, which now add to the large body of previously published clinical data and update previous meta-analyses and systematic reviews, zinc therapy is useful for treating both acute and persistent diarrhoea and for their prophylaxis," the researchers conclude.

Diarrhoea kills more than two million people each year, the World Health Organization estimates. Most are young children living in middle- or low-income countries. - (Reuters Health)

SOURCE: Pediatrics, February 2008.

Read more:
Zinc can save young lives
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February 2008
 

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