The study tested young children between the ages of 4 months and 7-years-old who were undergoing treatment for serious infections. The researchers randomly assigned the patients to receive either 10 mg of zinc or a placebo each day. The analysis showed the children given zinc decreased their risk of treatment failure by 40 percent. There was also a significant reduction in risk of death in the zinc patients as opposed to those given the placebo.

The results of the study are particularly important because there is such a high fatality rate in infants suffering from serious infections. In 2010, nearly two-thirds of deaths in children under the age of 5 were caused by bacterial infections.

"Zinc is an accessible, low-cost intervention that could add to the effect of antibiotic treatment and lead to substantial reductions in infant mortality, particularly in developing countries where millions of children die from serious infections every year, and where second-line antibiotics and appropriate intensive care might not be available," said a researcher.

Further research is needed to determine precisely why zinc produced such significant results, but experts believe the therapeutic use of zinc could be used to treat a variety of other ailments or infections, such as typhoid fever.

Roberta L. DeBiasi, M.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics Infectious Diseases  says, "The infections are very serious, there are actually 25-30 percent of children in these countries who die of these infections so it's a very large proportion of children affected by this and therefore the impact of these studies is obvious."