Blood zinc levels in children hospitalized with severe pneumonia: a case control study.

A case control study was conducted in a referral and teaching hospital in North India on children aged 2 months to 5 years, to compare blood zinc levels in 50 cases of severe pneumonia and 50 age,sex and nutritional status matched controls. Mean blood Zinc levels in cases and controls was 376.1 ug/dL + 225.73 and 538.52 microg/dL +/- 228.0 respectively ( P value 0.0003). In logistic regression model severe pneumonia was associated with lower blood zinc level, use of biomass fuel and isolation of H. Influenzae from nasopharyngeal swab. Cotrimoxazole resistant S. pneumoniae were isolated from 95% of cases and 41.2 % of controls (P = 0. 0004). Therefore, the role of zinc in treatment of severe pneumonia should be investigated.