The Government on Monday unveiled a new, cheaper and more effective zinc tablet to treat diarrhoea, a disease that leads to deaths of more than half a million children in the country every year. The easily dispersible tablet, produced by Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation Limited (BIBCOL), a unit of Department of Biotechnology, would be five to six times cheaper than some of the zinc formulations available in the market, officials said.

The tablet contains 20 mg of elemental zinc. It needs to be administered for two weeks to children between two months and five years of age. Officials said the tablet not only cures diarrhoea but also prevents pneumonia. The World Health Organisation recommends the use of zinc along with oral rehydration therapy and the Government has been supporting the use of zinc in the treatment of diarrhoea through the National Rural Health Mission. Officials said the tablet could be administered after mixing with water or breast milk. The tablet was approved after 36 trial runs involving 10,000 households in Delhi that showed more than 98 per cent positive results, officials said.