The Survey of Serum Zinc Level in Children with Pneumonia

Pneumonia is now one of the most important causes of childhood mortality in developing countries like Iran. The increased susceptibility to pneumonia, particularly in malnourished children of developing countries, is postulated to be due to reduction in cellular immunity. One of the reasons for reduced immunological competence in malnourished children may be zinc deficiency. However, relatively well nourished children of developing countries also suffer from pneumonia and it is possible that they have impaired immunity due to zinc deficiency. This study was done to investigate the zinc status of well nourished Iranian children with pneumonia in comparision with control group.Patients and In this case control study, estimation of serum zinc was performed in 142 well nourished children, aged 3-60 months suffering from pneumonia and compared with 142 normal matched controls. Serum zinc was low in children suffering from pneumonia as compared to control (437/1±39/65 mmol/l vs 511/23±36/931mmol/l) We conclude that children suffering from pneumonia, have significantly decreased levels of serum zinc (P=0.0075).