ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

New estimates by WHO and UNICEF reveal that half of all healthcare facilities worldwide lack basic hygiene services.

This means around 688 million people globally are receiving care at facilities that offer no hygiene services at all, according to the latest Joint Monitoring Programme on hygiene.

"Hygiene facilities and practices in healthcare settings are non-negotiable," said Dr Maria Neira, WHO director for the department of environment, climate change and health. "Their improvement is essential to pandemic recovery, prevention and preparedness.

"Hygiene in healthcare facilities cannot be secured without increasing investments in basic measures which include safe water, clean toilets and safely-managed healthcare waste."

In the least developed countries only 53 per cent of healthcare facilities were found to have on-premise access to a protected water source. And globally around three per cent of healthcare facilities in urban areas and 11 per cent in rural areas were found to have no water service.

One in 10 countries with available data claimed to have no sanitation service, with figures ranging from three per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean to 22 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report was launched at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden which ran from August 23 to September 1. The event explored new ways of tackling the world's greatest challenges from food security and health to agriculture, technology, biodiversity and climate.

Hygiene data is now available for 40 countries representing 35 per cent of the world's population, up from 21 countries in 2020 and 14 in 2019.