Nutritional status in patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis and a study of the effects of zinc supplementation together with antimony treatment

BACKGROUND: The role of micronutrient status for the incidence and clinical course of cutaneous leishmaniasis is not much studied. Still zinc supplementation in leishmaniasis has shown some effect on the clinical recovery, but the evidence in humans is limited. OBJECTIVE: To compare biochemical nutritional status in cutaneous leishmaniasis patients with that in controls and to study the effects of zinc supplementation for 60 days. DESIGN: Twenty-nine patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis were treated with antimony for 20 days. Fourteen of them got 45 mg zinc daily and 15 of them got placebo. Biomarkers of nutritional and inflammatory status and changes in size and characteristics of skin lesions were measured. RESULTS: The level of transferrin receptor was higher in patients than in controls but otherwise no differences in nutritional status were found between patients and controls. No significant effects of zinc supplementation on the clinical recovery were observed as assessed by lesion area reduction and characteristics or on biochemical parameters. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that nutritional status was essentially unaffected in cutaneous leishmaniasis and that oral zinc supplementation administered together with intramuscular injection of antimony had no additional clinical benefit.