Only half of global healthcare facilities have basic hygiene services, says WHO

Half of the world’s healthcare facilities lack basic hygiene services, a new report by the World Health Organization and Unicef has found.1 An estimated 3.85 billion people would be at risk of contracting an infection if they visited their local healthcare facility, from not being able to wash or sanitise their hands at points of care and near toilets. A lack of basic hygiene can be deadly, particularly for vulnerable people, as pathogens spread easily from contaminated hands in healthcare facilities, said Kelly Ann Naylor, Unicef’s director of WASH and climate, environment, energy, and disaster risk reduction (CEED). “Healthcare workers need water for all kinds of purposes: for hand hygiene, cleaning laundry, for decontamination of medical devices.”