By Zoe Eisenstein

LUANDA, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Rural Angolans have seen little or no improvement in healthcare since the end of a civil war five years ago, making them more vulnerable to cholera, malaria and other diseases, a humanitarian group said on Friday.

Mark van Boekel, head of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Holland in Angola, told Reuters that healthcare facilities in rural communities often did not work and they were staffed with poorly paid doctors and nurses, some of whom were untrained.

"My impression is that there are improvements in Luanda and the provincial capitals, but in the countryside and on the peripheries there is basically no improvement," he said after a news conference in Luanda.

The government has been accused of channeling too few resources into rural healthcare although its coffers are awash in oil revenue and the economy is growing in double-digits.

But despite the oil-fueled boom, Angola remains among the worst performers in Africa in a number of health areas.

Its infant mortality rate is among the highest in the world, with one quarter of toddlers and infants dying before the age of 5, often from measles, malaria or malnutrition. Cholera and polio are re-emerging as major threats in the country.

Van Boekel said the government would be faced with more outbreaks -- cholera killed at least 1,800 Angolans last year -- and a growing malaria crisis if it did not provide access to free, quality healthcare in rural areas.

"Angola is incredibly vulnerable to emergencies basically because there is no infrastructure. Environmental health in poor neighbourhoods is quite a disaster -- there is some investment and things are improving but not enough," he said.

Former colonial power Portugal established a rudimentary healthcare system while ruling Angola, offering vaccinations and basic services, but it crumbled after independence in 1975.

A subsequent civil war between the Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government and Western-backed rebels left millions even more vulnerable to disease.

Van Boekel said there was a desperate need for the government to open medical schools, improve training of nurses and provide incentives to encourage trained healthcare providers to live and work in rural areas.

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