GENEVA: Only four in 10 healthcare facilities worldwide provide basic sanitation services, leaving millions of patients and health workers without access to safe, usable and accessible toilets, according to a new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF.
The report, released on Tuesday, found that just 40 per cent of healthcare facilities in 2025 met basic sanitation standards, while 11 per cent had no sanitation services at all, affecting an estimated 936 million people worldwide.
The findings mark the first global estimates by WHO and UNICEF on access to basic sanitation services in healthcare settings.
Under the standards used in the report, a healthcare facility must have usable sanitation facilities that include at least one toilet designated for staff, at least one sex-separated toilet equipped with menstrual hygiene facilities, and at least one toilet accessible to people with limited mobility.
The assessment, based on data from 70 countries, showed substantial regional disparities in sanitation provision.
Only 23 per cent of healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa met the basic sanitation standard, compared with 55 per cent in Central and Southern Asia, highlighting persistent inequalities in access to essential healthcare infrastructure.
The report also examined access to other fundamental services needed to maintain safe healthcare environments, including water, hygiene, environmental cleaning and healthcare waste management.
It estimated that 85 per cent of healthcare facilities globally had basic water services in 2025, while 72 per cent had basic hygiene services and 71 per cent met basic healthcare waste-management standards.
Environmental cleaning remained another major concern. Only 59 per cent of healthcare facilities met the basic environmental cleaning standard, which requires both established cleaning protocols and trained cleaning personnel.
READ ALSO: WHO Reports Nearly 500 Confirmed Cases in Central Africa Ebola Outbreak
WHO and UNICEF said environmental cleaning is a core component of infection prevention and control, making the gaps particularly concerning for patients and healthcare workers.
Around 18 per cent of healthcare facilities, serving approximately 1.5 billion people, met neither of the required environmental cleaning criteria. The assessment of environmental cleaning was based on data from 54 countries.
Conditions were considerably worse in the world’s least-developed countries, where only 24 per cent of healthcare facilities met the basic environmental cleaning standard.
The agencies said the findings underscore significant shortcomings in the basic infrastructure required to provide safe and dignified healthcare, particularly in poorer countries and regions where health systems already face major resource constraints.
The report’s findings highlight the need for greater investment in sanitation, water, hygiene, cleaning and waste-management systems in healthcare facilities to protect patients and staff and strengthen infection prevention and control.
