A joint health report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNICEF said around 1.8 billion people are at heightened risk of Covid-19 and other diseases because they use or work in healthcare facilities without basic water services. The report titled, 'Global progress report on WASH in health care facilities: fundamentals first', was out as the ongoing pandemic is exposing key vulnerabilities within health systems, including inadequate infection prevention and control.
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are vital to the safety of health workers and patients yet provision of these services is not prioritised, says the report. Across the World, one in four healthcare facilities has no water services, one in three does not have access to hand hygiene, one in 10 has no sanitation services, and one in three does not segregate waste safely. In the 47 least developed countries (LDCs) in the world, the situation is worst, one in two health care facilities does not have basic drinking water, one in four health care facilities has no hand hygiene facilities at points of care; and three in five lack basic sanitation services.
The joint report gives four main recommendations, including implementing costed national roadmaps with appropriate financing and monitoring and regularly reviewing progress in improving WASH services, practices and the enabling environment. This year data report include 165 countries representing 760,000 Healthcare facilities. Last year data were extracted from 125 countries representing 560,000 facilities.
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