Angola currently has the second mortality rate for children in the world. A cross-sectional study was performed containing 1322 random selected children of the 10288 hospitalized from December 2004 to May 2005 at the Hospital Pediátrico David Bernardino, the largest hospital in Angola and health reference centre located in the capital city of Luanda. Hospital mortality was 18% and the main causes of death were:malaria (22.4%), undernutrition (21.5%), pneumonia (11.8%), neonatal affections (9.3%) and meningitis (8.0%). Programmes must be rapidly implemented to eradicate undernutrition, improve perinatal care and control infections, especially malaria, pneumonia and meningitis.
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Hospital Pediátrico de Luanda.Relatório de actividades e contas de 2003.Luanda: MINSA Hospital Pediátrico de Luanda, 2004
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World Health Organization.Management of severe malnutrition, in a manual for physicians and other senior health workers.Geneva: WHO, 1999
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FalboAR, AlvesJG, Batista FilhoM, Cabral-FilhoJE.Implementation of World Health Organization guidelines for management of severe malnutrition in a hospital in Northeast Brazil.Cad Saude Publica2006; 22: 561–70.
