Newsletter No. 1

Welcome to the first IZiNCG Newsletter! With this Newsletter, we hope to keep you informed about IZiNCG’s activities, including new resources and publications, research projects, and advocacy efforts.

Resources

New technical briefs

In 2018 and early 2019, five new IZiNCG Technical Briefs have been published:

No. 6, 2018 — How to deal with hemolysis for plasma/serum zinc analysis
No. 7, 2018 — Tools to assess dietary zinc intake in populations
No. 8, 2018 — Assessing population zinc exposure with hair or nail zinc
No. 9, 2018 — The value of measuring plasma or serum zinc concentrations in national surveys
No. 3, 2019, 2nd edition — Determining the prevalence of zinc deficiency: Assessment of dietary zinc intake

FAO/INFOODS/IZiNCG Global Food Composition Database for Phytate

The production of this database was a collaborative effort between FAO, INFOODS, and IZiNCG. It is the first global repository of analytical data on phytate in its different forms.

Find on IZiNCG’s page here, and read IZiNCG’s blog about the database here.

WHO MN database (link to WHO page)

The inclusion of plasma/serum zinc data in the WHO Micronutrients Database was a result of a collaborative effort between IZiNCG and WHO.

Read more in our blog highlighting why the availability of more and better data on the burden of zinc deficiency is important.

OpeN-Global

IZiNCG is a proud contributor to OpeN-Global, an open-access website on nutritional biomarkers. Read more in the guest blog by Drs Sophie Moore and Jessica Farebrother here.

IZiNCG is on Twitter and Linked-In!

Please follow our Twitter account @IZiNCG_ and our Linked-In page for weekly updates.

Research projects

Current and upcoming research projects are summarised on our IZiNCG Research Projects page.

ZiPT trial

The Zinc in Powders Trial in Bangladesh is a randomised, double-blind community-based efficacy trial of five different doses, forms, and frequencies of preventive zinc supplementation vs. a placebo. Results from the trial are expected in early 2020. Read more about the trial in our blog here, and in the protocol here.

In one of the ancillary studies underway, follow-up research from this publication of kinetic modeling is underway to better understand preventive zinc supplementation regimens in stunted children.

Reference methods for zinc analysis

This project will fill a critical gap in the quest for better zinc data. The goals of the project are to establish a set of reference methods for zinc analysis using each major type of instrument; and develop reference data that document analytical accuracy and precision among different instruments and different types of samples under ideal conditions at multiple sites. 

BRINDA 2

As a collaborator in the Biomarkers Reflecting Inflammation and Nutrition Determinants of Anemia 2 (BRINDA 2) working group, IZiNCG has led the work on adjusting plasma or serum zinc concentrations for inflammation in preschool children and women of reproductive age. The paper has been submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

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!

Highlighted publications:

Effects of Daily Zinc, Daily Multiple Micronutrient Powder, or Therapeutic Zinc Supplementation for Diarrhea Prevention on Physical Growth, Anemia, and Micronutrient Status in Rural Laotian Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Zinc Absorption from Micronutrient Powders Is Low in Bangladeshi Toddlers at Risk of Environmental Enteric Dysfunction and May Increase Dietary Zinc Requirements. Read a guest blog by the authors here.

Advocacy efforts

Plasma/serum zinc assessment in national surveys

IZiNCG is committed to increasing the availability and utilisation of high-quality data on zinc status at the national/sub-national level in low- and middle-income countries. Together with several other international groups and organisations, we hope to establish a working group to pursue this goal for all micronutrients.

Coverage of zinc for the treatment of diarrhea

IZiNCG has supported the Diarrhoea Innovations Group’s application to the World Health Organization's Model List of Essential Medicines for Children for the addition of co-packaged oral rehydration solution and zinc as an individual listing.

Conferences 

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.

We hope to connect with many of you at ASN 2019 in June and ISTERH 2019 in September.

If you haven’t already: Save the Date for the Micronutrient Forum Global Conference in March 2020 in Bangkok!

Stay Tuned…

➡️ Can multiply-fortified salt improve micronutrient status among women of reproductive age?

➡️ What can we learn from Cameroon’s success of assessing and addressing their burden of zinc deficiency through zinc fortification?

➡️ Where is our knowledge at in 2019 on the efficacy and effectiveness of zinc fortification interventions? Which opportunities are there to enhance impact?

➡️ A new IZiNCG Technical Brief on adjusting plasma or serum zinc concentrations for inflammation.

➡️ A new IZiNCG Technical Brief describing reference methods and reference data for zinc analysis.