Dr. Helena Nzinga Augusto

Dr. Helena Nzinga Augusto is a consultant paediatrician at Hospital Pediátrico David Bernardino in Luanda — Angola's only dedicated national children's hospital and the principal paediatric referral centre for the country's 34 million people. With 14 years of clinical experience, she manages the full spectrum of paediatric conditions that define the disease burden in sub-Saharan Angola, with particular expertise in malnutrition, neonatal care, malaria, and the paediatric complications of HIV and sickle cell disease.

Hospital David Bernardino serves as the highest level of paediatric care available in Angola, receiving referrals from all eighteen provinces of the country. The hospital manages over 100,000 paediatric consultations annually and operates a neonatal intensive care unit, a malnutrition rehabilitation ward, and an oncology unit — services that Dr. Augusto contributes to across multiple clinical areas.

Malnutrition, including severe acute malnutrition (SAM) requiring therapeutic feeding with RUTF, remains a significant focus of Dr. Augusto's work — Angola's rates of childhood stunting and wasting, while improving, remain elevated particularly in the southern provinces affected by recurrent drought. She applies WHO Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) protocols and coordinates with nutritionists and community health workers on rehabilitation programmes.

Dr. Augusto is committed to paediatric education and supervises medical students from Universidade Agostinho Neto. She communicates in Portuguese and Kimbundu, the most widely spoken Bantu language in Luanda.

Dr. Augusto completed her Licenciatura em Medicina at the Faculdade de Medicina of Universidade Agostinho Neto in Luanda — Angola's leading medical school. She undertook her Especialidade em Pediatria through the competitive residency programme at Hospital David Bernardino, gaining comprehensive training in neonatal medicine, paediatric tropical diseases, and nutritional disorders. She completed a clinical attachment in neonatal intensive care at Hospital da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal, advancing her skills in neonatal respiratory management. She has received training in the WHO IMAM protocol for severe acute malnutrition management and IMCI (Integrated Management of Childhood Illness) through UNICEF Angola programmes.

Dr. Augusto's paediatric expertise covers the conditions most prevalent in Luanda's complex health environment. In neonatal medicine, she manages preterm newborns, neonatal sepsis, neonatal jaundice requiring phototherapy, and neonatal respiratory distress. She performs neonatal resuscitation and basic bedside procedures. In malnutrition, she manages severe acute malnutrition including complicated SAM requiring inpatient rehabilitation with therapeutic milk (F-75, F-100) and RUTF. She manages malaria in children — including severe falciparum malaria requiring parenteral artesunate — pneumonia, diarrhoeal disease, and meningitis. She monitors HIV-positive children on paediatric antiretroviral therapy and manages children with sickle cell disease through regular follow-up and crisis management.

Hospital Pediátrico David Bernardino serves as Angola's national paediatric referral centre and receives patients from across the country and occasionally from neighbouring countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia. Dr. Augusto consults in Portuguese. For expatriate families resident in Luanda, the hospital's international wing provides paediatric consultations. Complex paediatric cases requiring specialist investigation or surgery not available in Angola are referred through established medical evacuation routes to South Africa or Portugal.

Dr. Augusto has been recognised by the Sociedade Angolana de Pediatria for her contributions to neonatal and nutritional paediatrics at Hospital David Bernardino. She was commended by UNICEF Angola for her participation in malnutrition rehabilitation protocol implementation and her advocacy for improved nutritional outcomes in Luanda's most vulnerable paediatric populations.