Global healthcare sanitation gap: Only 40% of facilities meet basic standards, UN says
Only four in ten healthcare facilities worldwide have toilets that meet basic sanitation standards, according to a new report from two United Nations agencies. The report also found that 11% of health facilities have no sanitation services at all, leaving hundreds of millions of people without access to safe and dignified restrooms.
The joint report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released on Tuesday provides the first global estimates of basic sanitation services in healthcare settings. The findings are based on data from 70 countries and reflect the situation in 2025.
The report defines basic sanitation as facilities that include at least one toilet dedicated to staff, at least one sex-separated toilet with facilities for menstrual hygiene, and at least one toilet accessible to people with limited mobility. Under this definition, only 40% of healthcare facilities worldwide met the standard last year.
The gaps are starkly uneven across regions. In sub-Saharan Africa, just 23% of health facilities provide basic sanitation services. In central and southern Asia, the figure is 55%. Globally, more than one in ten facilities have no sanitation service whatsoever, affecting an estimated 936 million people who rely on those facilities for care.
The report also assessed broader water, hygiene, waste management, and environmental cleaning services in healthcare settings. It found that 85% of facilities had basic water services, 72% had basic hygiene services, and 71% had basic healthcare waste management services. However, only 59% met basic environmental cleaning standards, which require both documented cleaning protocols and trained cleaning staff.
Environmental cleaning is a core component of infection prevention and control, the report notes. In the world's least-developed countries, only 24% of facilities meet this standard. A full 18% of facilities globally, serving around 1.5 billion people, have neither cleaning protocols nor trained cleaning staff.
The report underscores that inadequate sanitation and hygiene in healthcare settings not only compromise patient dignity but also increase the risk of healthcare-associated infections. These infections are a major cause of illness and death, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
WHO and UNICEF have called on governments and development partners to increase investment in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in health facilities. They stress that achieving universal access will require targeted policies, funding, and monitoring to ensure that no facility is left behind.
The findings are a reminder that while significant progress has been made in some areas, basic infrastructure that many take for granted remains out of reach for billions of people in healthcare settings. The agencies emphasize that improving these services is essential for patient safety, quality of care, and the overall goal of universal health coverage.
