Treating young children with zinc in addition to standard antibiotics greatly reduces the duration of severe pneumonia, according to a study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Centre for Health and Population Research (ICDDR, B). Pneumonia is a leading cause of illness and death among children under age 5, particularly in the developing world. The researchers believe zinc therapy could help reduce antimicrobial resistance by decreasing the exposure to multiple antibiotics and lessen the health complications and deaths worldwide caused by severe pneumonia. The study appears in the May 22, 2004, edition of The Lancet.
