Only 40 percent of healthcare facilities worldwide met healthcare sanitation standards for basic sanitation services in 2025, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
The report, released Tuesday, found that 11 percent of healthcare facilities globally had no sanitation services at all, leaving about 936 million people without access to such services in healthcare settings. The joint report provides the first global estimates specifically assessing basic sanitation services in healthcare facilities. It used data from 70 countries to examine whether facilities met defined standards for accessible and usable toilets.
Under the standards, facilities must have 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 findings showed substantial regional disparities in healthcare sanitation standards. Only 23 percent of healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa provided basic sanitation services, compared with 55 percent in central and southern Asia.
The report also examined other essential services linked to healthcare safety and infection prevention, including water, hygiene, environmental cleaning and healthcare waste management. According to the estimates, 85 percent of healthcare facilities worldwide had basic water services in 2025, while 72 percent provided basic hygiene services. Basic healthcare waste management services were available in 71 percent of facilities.
Environmental cleaning remained another major gap. Only 59 percent of healthcare facilities met basic environmental cleaning requirements. The standard requires facilities to have cleaning protocols and trained cleaning personnel, both of which are considered important components of infection prevention and control.
The report found that 18 percent of healthcare facilities, serving approximately 1.5 billion people, met neither of the environmental cleaning requirements. The environmental cleaning assessment was based on data from 54 countries. The gaps were particularly pronounced in the world’s poorest countries. Only 24 percent of healthcare facilities in least-developed nations met the basic environmental cleaning standard.
The findings highlight continuing disparities in essential healthcare infrastructure, particularly in regions where health systems already face significant resource constraints. The WHO and UNICEF estimates indicate that improving sanitation, water, hygiene, cleaning and waste management remains essential to ensuring safer healthcare environments for patients and health workers worldwide.
