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Warring Against Malaria With Dietary Supplements
February 07, 2008 at 3:39 PM
Tropical Disease News
The study, documented in Nutrition Journal, says that giving children vitamin A and zinc can cut incidences of the illness by a third.
To date, malaria remains a major killer in many parts of the world. It causes about a million child deaths a year, in sub-Saharan Africa.
Resistance to drug treatments is now a mounting problem faced by health specialists. Efforts to kill the infected mosquitoes that spread the disease have also been impeded by the use of ineffective insecticides.
Many people living in malaria endemic areas are known to suffer from malnutrition. Researchers in Burkina Faso experimented with adding vitamin A and zinc supplements to the diets of children aged from six months to six years.
In the study, half of the children were given a placebo. After six months the scientists recorded a 34 percent decrease in incidence of malaria in the children who took supplements.
Among those children who did catch the illness, those taking supplements were found to be more resistant to the disease and suffered fewer fever episodes.
The researchers, from Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Sante, suggest that the combination of supplements boosted the children's immune system. This also made them more naturally resistant to malaria, they say.
The scientists believe the supplements could be an effective long term strategy to reduce the impact of malaria.
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