DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2023.v11i07.011

Pages: 1266-1271

Background: Pneumonia is described as an inflammation of the lung parenchyma. 1 Pneumonia is a major cause of illness and death in children worldwide, particularly in children under the age of five. Moreover, Preventive zinc supplementation may repair any deficiency that leads to immunodeficiency, and some data showed that it may lower child mortality and morbidity from infectious illnesses, including diarrhoea and pneumonia. Objective: In this study our main goal is to evaluate the efficacy of zinc supplementation as adjuvant therapy for severe pneumonia in young children. Method: This case control observational study was carried out at Tertiary medical college and hospital from June 2020 to 2021 among 200 young children aged <2 months to 5 years suffering from pneumonia. The participants were randomly assigned, following simple randomization procedures (1: 1), to receive zinc or placebo (5 mL every 12 hours) along with the common antibiotic treatments until discharge, was considered as a zinc supplement group, n=100. Patient assigned to placebo received the same solution as zinc supplement syrup but without zinc, which was considered as a non-zinc group, n=100. Results: During the study, maximum numbers of study group were in the age group 6 months to 2 years (56%) and (52%). Plus, in both group majority were male. In both group cough complaints was common, 100%. In zinc therapy group all had fever and hurried breathing and 9.6% had cold. Where as in non-zinc group all had cough followed by 90.4% had fever, 95.2% had hurried breath, 23.8% had cold. In zinc supplement group about 47.60% children had oxygen saturation less than 90 at the time of admission whereas about 53.30% children had oxygen saturation higher than 90 at the time. in zinc supplementation group mean time for resolution of distress was 52.45±33.98, mean time to be asymptomatic was 64.52±36.03, mean duration of hospital stay was 6.10±3.55.. whereas in non-zinc group mean time for resolution of .....