A double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in The Lancet (2005;366(9500):1862–1867) examined the effect of zinc supplementation on diarrhea in South African children infected with HIV. The 96 subjects were randomly assigned to receive either 10 mg of zinc (as zinc sulfate) per day or a placebo for six months.
Plasma viral load, CD4+ T lymphocyte counts, and hemoglobin concentrations were measured at three, six, and nine months. There were no significant differences in these values between the placebo group and the supplemented group.
During the course of the study, two children died in the supplemented group and seven died in the placebo group. Diarrhea was diagnosed in 7.4% of clinic visits in the supplemented group, compared to 14.5% of visits in the placebo group. The authors recommended zinc supplementation as an adjunctive therapy to help control diarrhea.
