Scaling up zinc treatment of childhood diarrhoea in Bangladesh: theoretical and practical considerations guiding the SUZY Project

In 2003, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), in partnership with the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) and the private sector embarked on a national exercise to scale up zinc treatment of childhood diarrhoea as an adjunct to oral rehydration solution (ORS). Private sector participation included national associations representing licensed and unlicensed health care providers, a local pharmaceutical laboratory, a marketing agency and a technology transfer from the European patent holder of the dispersible zinc tablet formulation promoted in the scale-up campaign. This project was a response to several years of research in the preceding decade demonstrating that zinc supplementation during a diarrhoeal illness episode significantly reduces illness severity and duration as well as…