Zinc for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19: effects are uncertain (search up to 8 May 2020)
Citation: Arentz S, Hunter J, Yang G, et al. Zinc for the prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and other acute viral respiratory infections: a rapid review. Advances in Integrative Medicine. 2020;7(4):252-60.
What is this? The use of zinc has been suggested for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
In this rapid review, the authors searched for randomized and quasi-randomized trials of zinc for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19, other coronaviruses and related viral respiratory tract infections. They did not restrict their searches by date or language of publication and did the search up to 8 May 2020. They included 118 publications (investigating a wide variety of forms of zinc including nasal spray/gel, lozenges, liquid, tablets and intramuscular) on prevention (32 studies), treatment (78) and both treatment and prevention (8). None of these related directly to COVID-19. They also identified two ongoing randomized trials for the prevention of COVID-19 and two for its treatment.
What works: At the time of this review, indirect evidence from studies for viral respiratory infections distinct from COVID-19, suggest that zinc may reduce the risk, duration and severity of COVID-19 infection; particularly for populations at risk of zinc deficiency (including people with chronic disease comorbidities and older adults).
What doesn’t work: Nothing noted.
What’s uncertain: At the time of this review, the included studies found no direct evidence for the effectiveness of zinc in the prevention or treatment of COVID-19.