Angola: Health system in tatters after war

A deadly fire in a satellite town of the Angolan capital has shown the woefully inadequate state of hospitals in a country still struggling to get back on its feet two years after the end of a brutal civil war. The accident in late February happened when a truck carrying barrels of petrol caught fire in the town of Viana, killing 15 people immediately and injuring more than 80. The wounded were admitted to nearby Neves Bendinha Hospital, where staff did their best to treat them for third-degree burns in under-equipped facilities. As patients lay screaming in corridors and overcrowded wards, many on plastic mattresses on the floor, and as the stench of burnt flesh filled the building, hospital director Dr. Valdemiro Diogo said resources were desperately over-stretched.