Crude oil touted as health cure in Azerbaijan

Oil is used to treat to cure muscular, skin and bone conditions as well as gynaecological and neurological problems. [AFP]

Immersed up to her neck in a dark viscous liquid, Sulfiya smiles in delight, confident that the fetid substance will cure her painful condition.

Sulfiya, a Russian woman in her 60s, has travelled to Azerbaijan's north-western city of Naftalan in the hope that crude oil baths at a local sanatorium will end her years of suffering from polyarthritis, a disease affecting the joints.