**5. Conclusions**

Oral therapeutic zinc supplementation reduces the morbidity of acute diarrhea among children under five in and outside China. Global efforts should be made to support scale-up of the WHO recommended regimen of therapeutic zinc in all regions.

### **Authors' Contributions**

LML conducted the systematic review of non-Chinese studies, analysis and led the initial manuscript preparation. CLFW assisted with the analysis and the manuscript preparation. KC and WYJ conducted the systematic review of Chinese studies. REB conceptualized the idea and assisted with the interpretation of the analysis and the final manuscript preparation.
