research carried out in Bangladesh has shown that giving zinc supplements to children suffering from diarrhoea can reduce the duration and severity of the disease. The study has been carried out by researchers from the Baltimore-based John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the uk.

It was conducted over a period of two years at a field site in Matlab - a rural sub-district where icddr, b has been working on diarrhoea-related diseases since 1963. During 1998, infant mortality in the area was 60.6 per 1,000 live births and mortality in children (between the age group of 1-4 years) was 5.2 per 1,000 children. Diarrhoea accounted for around 12 per cent of infant deaths and for almost one-third of the children's death.

The researchers studied 8,070 children between the ages of three months to about five years. Out of them, 10 per cent suffered from diarrhoea during the study period. For treating the disease, some were given 20 milligrammes of a syrup containing zinc to be taken for 14 days, as well as the oral rehydration solution (ors). The others were just given ors.

The results showed that children taking the syrup had a 24 per cent shorter duration of the disease. Fifteen per cent of them had fewer relapses. There was a 19 per cent reduction in the number of children who were hospitalised. Antibiotic use decreased by 60 per cent among them. There was also a decrease in the incidence of the acute respiratory infection (see table: A dash of zinc).

Such results were seen despite the fact that most children took the syrup only for seven days as compared to the recommended 14 days. "This is a simple and inexpensive intervention which can bring about a substantial decrease in child mortality," says Abdullah Baqui, of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.