Zinc Supplementation As Potential Diarrhoea Remedy: Experts

News Desk

Islamabad: Diarrhoea causes the deaths of about 110 children every day in Pakistan, but their lives can be saved with low-cost pharmaceutical interventions, including the administration of Zinc along with Oral Rehydrating Solutions (ORS) and fluid maintenance, according to leading health experts and officials.

Diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death in children under five years of age but half of the deaths due to diarrhoea in children are reported from Pakistan, India and Nigeria, said Health Services Academy (HSA) Vice Chancellor Prof. Shehzad Ali Khan.

Two Zinc products by the local pharmaceutical firm PharmEvo are being manufactured at a World Health Organisation (WHO) prequalified manufacturing facility, which is a great achievement for the Pakistani pharmaceutical industry, stated Dr Shehzad.

Experts further said that thousands of children’s lives were saved in the flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan last year when they were given Zinc supplements along with oral rehydrating solutions, and it also helped in overcoming malnutrition among children.

Health experts and officials were speaking at the event titled ‘Importance of Zinc in Human Health and WHO Prequalification’, jointly organised by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination (NHSRC) in collaboration with PharmEvo.

Pakistan could not only save the lives of thousands of children by giving them WHO-prequalified nutritional supplements but also save precious foreign exchange by buying these products from the local market, experts further added.

Secretary Health Iftikhar Shalwani further said that international donor organisations, including United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and others, purchase Zinc and other nutritional products from other countries, but after WHO prequalification, Zinc products can be produced by local companies.

“I would also urge local pharmaceutical companies to start producing tuberculosis, bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV) and cancer medicines locally, as we have to buy medicines worth 200 to 300 million US dollars from other countries in the world,” Shalwani suggested.

“If these drugs are produced locally, this money would be spent for the country’s economic uplift,” he recommended and called for enhanced collaboration between industry and academia in this regard.

“We are also giving incentives on local production of medicines’ raw materials which will also decrease our dependence on imported Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and reduce our import bill,” Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Asim Rauf added.

Rauf also called for linkages between academia and the pharma industry and appropriate utilisation of the Central Research Fund (CRF) of DRAP for research and development in the pharma sector.