Newsletter No. 3

With our best wishes for the holidays and a happy, healthy New Year, here is our third and final Newsletter of 2019!
 

Conferences

We hope to see many of you at the Micronutrient Forum Global Conference, which will take place between March 23 - 27, 2020 in Bangkok. Please mark your calendars for IZiNCG’s symposium titled Advancing efforts to improve zinc nutrition globally on March 25 at 12:30pm.

A list of upcoming conferences of relevance to the zinc community is available on IZiNCG’s Conference Page. The list is by no means exhaustive - please contact us on secretariat@izincg.org about other conferences of interest.

Resources

Cameroon Case Study

The case study, Addressing Zinc Deficiency Through Wheat Flour Fortification in Cameroon, is our newest resource. If you have not had a chance to read it yet, it is our top tip for a good holiday read.

Upcoming Technical Briefs

The following Technical Briefs will be published in the New Year

  • Adjusting plasma or serum zinc concentrations for inflammation.

  • Reference laboratory methods and reference data for analysis of zinc in biological samples.

  • Field-friendly methods for measuring phytate in food.

IZiNCG is on Twitter and Linked-In!

Join the conversation on Twitter (@IZiNCG_) and Linked-In.

Zinc Fortification Task Force

Our Zinc Fortification Task Force was initiated in July. Its overall goal is to enhance the impact of zinc fortification interventions.

Progress report: We are half-way through our systematic review, and country interviews to identify challenges and enabling factors behind the implementation of zinc fortification interventions will start in the new year. IZiNCG is also a technical parter in the Second Global Summit on Food Fortification.

Research projects

Below are some updates on our research projects summarised on our IZiNCG Research Projects page.

Multiply-fortified salt study in planning phase

Our study to evaluate the nutritional impact of multiply-fortified salt among women of reproductive age in Haryana, India is in the phase of planning and preparation. We hope to initiate the Phase 1 field work in May 2020. Read more in our blog about the project.

ZiPT trial one month from completion

Data collection for all 2,886 children enrolled in the Zinc in Powders Trial (ZiPT) in Bangladesh is scheduled to finish at the end of January. Our team will be presenting the preliminary findings at the IZiNCG Symposium at the Micronutrient Forum conference. Read more about the trial in our blog here, and in the protocol here.

Reference methods for analysis of PZC

Our laboratory project involving labs in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Switzerland and the USA has been completed. A digest of the findings will be available as a Technical Brief soon.

Adjusting PZC for inflammation

This manuscript, part of the Biomarkers Reflecting Inflammation and Nutritional Determinants of Anemia (BRINDA) project, has been accepted for publication in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Recent publications

We aim to update our page on recent zinc publications on a monthly basis. Please contact secretariat@izincg.org with news of upcoming publications!

We’d like to highlight the much awaited report from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey in India, available on our page on countries with population-level data on plasma/serum zinc concentrations.

Advocacy efforts

Micronutrient biomarker assessment in national surveys

IZiNCG is working with the Micronutrient Forum and other partners to increase the availability and quality of data on micronutrient deficiencies.

IZiNCG has been conducting a series of interviews focusing on barriers and enablers of the inclusion of micronutrient biomarker assessment in national surveys and surveillance systems.

Get in touch!

Please contact secretariat@izincg.org with your thoughts and ideas, or if you would like to share your research or programmatic findings related to zinc on our website.