Zinc Supplementation

The Problem

• Diarrhea is one of the most common causes of death among children in developing countries.
• Therapeutic zinc supplementation can decrease the severity and duration of diarrhea and the incidence of both diarrhea and pneumonia among young children.
• Recent estimates suggest that zinc deficiency is associated with at least 4 percent of overall child mortality.

What HKI Is Doing

• In collaboration with local partners, Helen Keller International works with national governments to adopt the WHO/UNICEF guidelines to include zinc supplementation in national diarrhea control programs and to train health workers to implement these guidelines.
• HKI’s Africa Regional Office in Senegal hosts the secretariat of the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group (IZiNCG): www.izincg.org.
• HKI’s programs also promote optimal breastfeeding and improved hygiene practices to prevent these life-threatening infections in the first place.  Helen Keller International is dedicated to preventing malnutrition worldwide.

• Program Locations
• Burkina Faso
• Cameroon
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Mali
• Niger
• Tanzania

• Recent News
• "G8 must seize chance to tackle undernutrition"
• From A to Zinc: HKI Hailed for Innovative Programs
• "Reducing Child Mortality"
• more...

• Key Publications
• (NNA April 2011_Eng) Repositioning children’s right to adequate nutrition in the Sahel: Results of a Situational Analysis
• (NNA March 2011_Eng) A review of phytate, iron, zinc, and calcium concentrations in plant-based complementary foods used in low-income countries and implications for bioavailability. 2) The adequacy of micronutrient concentrations in manufactured complementary foods from low-income countries.
• Nutrition News for Africa: An article entitled “Child development: risk factors for adverse outcomes in developing countries” was published by Walker S et al. in the Lancet 2007; 369: 145–57.
• more...