PARIS, Nov 25 (AFP) - Doctors have lifted a cloud of doubt as to whether zinc supplements could be safe and beneficial for children infected with the AIDS virus.
A major study published in August showed that zinc supplements can slash incidence of diarrhoea and pneumonia among children in poor countries.
But there have also been worries that these supplements could be unsafe for children with the human immunodeficiency virus.
HIV thrives on zinc, depending on this element to build its viral structure and penetrate immune cells and reproduce. In addition, the T-lymphocyte immune cells that are specifically targeted by HIV are also activated by zinc.
A team led William Moss of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore carried out a trial among 96 HIV-positive South African children aged between six months and five years.
Half of the group received zinc supplements, while the other half received a dummy tablet for six months.
Those who took the zinc suffered less incidence of diarrhoea, but there was no increase in HIV levels in their blood, according to the study, which appears in the British medical weekly The Lancet.
"Zinc supplementation could be a simple and cost-effective intervention to reduce morbidity and diarrhoeal diseases," its authors say.
"Programmes to enhance zinc intake in deficient populations with a high prevalence of HIV-1 infection can be implemented without concern for adverse effects on virus replication."
In the August study, conducted among Bangladeshi 1,621 children aged two months to a year, the zinc group showed an 85-percent reduction in the death rate from pneumonia and diarrhoea, and were also slightly taller, than their non-zinc counterparts.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says pneumonia killed two million children aged under five from 2000 to 2003. Diarrhoea claims an additional 1.9 million lives each year among this group.
More than 40 million people have HIV or AIDS, 2.3 million of whom are children aged under 15, according figures released on Monday by the WHO and UNAIDS.
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