Zinc can protect children with HIV

Zinc supplementation may be a simple and safe way to prevent diarrhea and improve the immunity of HIV-infected children.

Zinc is an essential mineral for the development and functioning of the immune system, but it has long been feared that for HIV patients, zinc can be dangerous because the AIDS virus also needs it to reproduce.

However, in a recent study by US and South African scientists, it was found that zinc is safe for children with HIV - the virus that weakens the immune system and makes people easily die from any infectious disease. Come on.

Among the 96 children enrolled in the study, those who received zinc supplementation within 6 months had less diarrhea than those who took placebo. Zinc also caused any side effects, said lead researcher William Moss, Johns Hopkins School.

Currently, although the World Health Organization has improved access to AIDS drugs in poor countries, this measure does not reach many children. " As a result, more than half of HIV-infected children die before age 3, largely due to respiratory infections and diarrhea ".

According to the latest UNAIDS statistics, the world currently has about 40.3 million people, including 2.3 million children under 15 years old, living with HIV. In 2005 alone, about 570,000 children died of AIDS, while there were very few interventions to reduce the number of deaths in HIV-infected children.

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