Association between Zinc Status and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Severity in Infected Nigerian Children at Ogbomoso, Nigeria.

Background: Zinc status is suboptimal, and requirements are known to be increased in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals. Some aspects of the association between zinc status and HIV disease severity in African children still constitute a knowledge gap.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare serum zinc levels with the disease severity in HIV infected Nigerian children.

Materials and methods: Fifty-three randomly selected HIV infected children attending pediatric anti-retroviral clinics in Ogbomosho, Nigeria, were studied. Data from their social demographics, the WHO disease stages and zinc levels were determined and analyzed to test associations.

Results: The mean age of the 53 participants was 9 ± 1.3 years with, male-to-female ratio of 2.1:1. Of the 53 children, 32 (60.4%), 13 (24.5%) and 8 (15.1%) were from WHO clinical stage I, II and III. Zinc levels in the subjects ranged from 0.017 to 3.18 ng/ml. Nine (17.0%) children had deficient zinc levels below 0.05 ng/ml. The mean serum zinc level was 1.959 (±0.95), 1.607 (±1.28), and 1.435 (±1.36).ng/ml in the subjects from WHO clinical HIV stage I, II and III, respectively. P = 0.05. Four (50.0%) of the 8 children with advanced HIV stages were zinc deficient compared with the 5 (20.0%) of the 40 in the nonadvanced HIV class, P < 0.01.

Conclusion: Zinc deficiency is a significant challenge of HIV infected children with advanced disease. Screening of children with advanced HIV disease for zinc deficiency should be routine, and deficiencies should be corrected.