Note: Far better to give children a multi-vitamin, multi-mineral supplement that contains zinc than to just give zinc.

Zinc Supplementation Found To Reduce Mortality In Older Children: "A clinical trial conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public concluded that daily zinc supplements reduced the risk of death among children aged 12 to 48 months by 18 percent. However, the researchers did not find any significant reduction in mortality among children 1 to 11 months of age. The study is published in the March 17, 2007, edition of The Lancet.

Zinc is one of the most plentiful trace elements in the body, second only to iron. It mediates many physiological functions and is believed to be essential for maintaining a healthy immune system. The trial examined whether zinc supplementation would benefit children living in areas where malaria is prevalent. Pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria account for 45 percent of the 10 million child deaths worldwide each year.

“This large trial demonstrates that the benefits of zinc supplementation include mortality reduction in addition to the reduction in cases of pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria that we found in previous trials,” said Robert Black, MD, the study’s senior author and professor and chair of the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health."