Please select the eligibility criteria that correspond to the clinical trial below.
Title: Efficacy of Short Course Zinc Therapy (5 vs 10 d) With 20 mg Elemental Zinc Daily in the Treatment of Acute Diarrhoea: A Double-blind Individually Randomized Controlled Community Trial.
Brief Summary: Diarrhoea continues to be a major cause of mortality and morbidity in young children especially in many developing countries. Although the mortality burden of diarrhoea has substantially reduced, the morbidity pattern remained almost unchanged. Recent randomized controlled supplementation trials in developing countries have consistently shown that zinc has the potential to reduce the duration of diarrhoea as well as has preventive effect on childhood diarhroea in subsequent months. Currently, international health agencies recommend zinc as an important adjunct therapy to treat diarrhoea in developing countries where zinc deficiency is highly prevalent and diet is poor in zinc.

The recommendation is to provide 20 mg elemental zinc daily for 10 days during each episode of diarrhoea.

This study aims at evaluating the relative efficacy of two length of 20 mg zinc therapy (5 vs 10 days) during acute diarrhoea in a rural community in a community-based individually randomized placebo-controlled trial with 20 mg zinc daily and will be conducted in seven villages in the ICDDR,B Matlab study area.

The study will require 2050 acute dirrhoeal episodes to be treated who will be randomly allocated to one of the two treatment schedules (20 mg of zinc daily for 5 or 10 days). Children who will be allocated to the shorter duration therapy will receive placebo for the remaining days to complete 10-day treatment. Female Field Workers (FFWs) will conduct diarrhoea surveillance and administer zinc daily at home. Data will be analyzed using appropriate statistical procedure.

Findings of this study will be immensely valuable for deciding recommendation for the duration of zinc therapy in the management of acute diarrhoea in young children and will have profound programmatic and policy implications for scaling up zinc intervention in the community.


Options:
A: Inclusion Criteria:

* Children from 2 to 59 months of age with severe pneumonia admitted to the Children´s Hospital, whose parents are willing to provide written informed consent will be eligible for participation

Exclusion Criteria:

* Children suffering from marasmus or kwashiorkor, measles, pneumonia due to aspiration of a foreign body, hepatic or renal disease, sepsis, congenital abnormalities (cardiac, renal, or genetic), complicated pneumonia (lung abscess, pleural effusion, pneumatocele, atelectasis), or severe anemia (hemoglobin less than 8 g/dL \[this cut-off is based on clinical experience with severe anemia at high altitude\])
* Children whose parents refuse to provide written informed consent.
B: Inclusion Criteria:

* Children aged between 3-14 years hospitalized at ICDDR, B presenting with cholera within 24 hours of onset.
* Stool output more than 4ml/kg/hour within the first 6 hours of observation period.
* Positive dark field examination

Exclusion Criteria:

* Unable to rehydrate within 6 hours
* Negative dark field examination
* Systemic illness requiring immediate administration of antibiotics.
* Received antibiotics in the 24 hours prior to hospitalization
* Patients presenting with bloody mucoid diarrhea
* Unconscious or medical emergencies
C: Inclusion Criteria:

1. Children less than 5 years with acute watery diarrhoea less than 48 h of duration
2. No medication received other than ORS or home solution
3. Absence of complication or co-morbidities.
4. Absence of severe dehydration

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Age greater than 5 years
2. Diarrhoea more than 48 h duration
3. Unable to eat or drink
4. Already received multiple treatment including zinc
5. Presence of co-morbidities
6. Severe dehydration
D: Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age between 12-59 months
2. Moderate malnutrition (61-75% Weight / Age - NCHS Median)
3. Duration of diarrhoea of 5 days
4. Culture confirmed shigella spp in stool on enrolment

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Measles infection in the past six months
2. Presence of obvious systemic illnesses
3. Severe malnutrition
4. Residence in a location requiring a journey of\>2 hour from the Dhaka Hospital of the ICDDR,B
5. Refusal to give consent

Answer: C