An Angolan man has been arrested for raping a woman in intensive care in a Luanda hospital, state radio said on Monday, in what is seen as the latest scandal to hit the country’s struggling health system. A man entered the infectious diseases ward of Luanda General Hospital and allegedly raped a woman patient in the early hours of Saturday morning, an unnamed hospital spokesman told state radio.
"This is really a case which has shocked the entire hospital.
"The victim was suffering from a lung condition and was very debilitated," he said.
He added the man was arrested by police after the incident in the Kilamba Kiaxi district.
The incident came just weeks after the televised death of a woman suffering from suspected meningitis, who was refused treatment at Americo Boavida Hospital in central Luanda.
A security guard had been told to not to accept any patients because there were no spare beds.
When her mother asked for an ambulance to another hospital, staff asked her for money, so instead she went to Angola’s state television station to ask for help, only for her daughter to die outside the gates of the station.
Her final breaths were captured by a film crew and the footage has been shown on Angolan television and distributed on the Internet.
The hospital’s board has been dismissed and an interim management team put in place.
Health Minister Jose Van-Dunem admitted last week that Luanda’s hospitals were struggling to meet demand from the capital’s growing population.
Health care is free in Angola but anyone who can afford private care, pays for it.
Oil-rich Angola is in a period of reconstruction following three decades of civil war which only ended in 2002 and destroyed hospitals, schools, roads and most other infrastructures.
Source: AHU – David A-O