Zinc deficiencies in children aged under three harms their immune systems and raises levels of anemia in conjunction with intestinal parasites which adapt to and resist the lack of zinc and other nutrient deficits.

This is one of the key findings of a transversal study undertaken by CISA that, in 2015, recruited over 850 children under three years of age and with its results demonstrating how zinc deficiencies may jeopardise immune system responses to infections.

Furthermore, intestinal parasites are able to adapt to this lack of zinc and such environments to drive increases in the levels of anemia and inflammation. 

This study demonstrated the importance of controlling dietary deficits through changes in eating habits given that zinc is an essential micronutrient found in meat, beans, peanuts and cashews.

The researchers also grasped how zinc deficiencies significantly raise the likelihood of anemia more strongly in children who have already suffered from anemia caused by iron deficiencies.

The results of this study were recently published in an article in the international scientific journal “Nutrients” by the CISA researchers who carried out the “Community Educational Intervention in Nutrition, WASH/Malária and anemia” project between 2015 and 2017, with support from BFA and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Camões IP.