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What’s even more important is that hundreds of thousands die due to infections acquired in hospitals, the media revealed, citing a joint research by the international non-governmental organization WaterAid and the World Bank.

Clean water, better restrooms, and handwashing facilities could prevent at least half of the cases, according to the paper. Notably, pediatric departments, neonatal wards, and intensive care units had the highest rates of contamination.

💵 Thus, African countries incur an average cost of 1.1% of their GDP and 4.5% of their health budgets due to healthcare-associated infections, which include diseases like sepsis and pneumonia, the media reported.

The country that was most severely affected was Malawi, which has to spend 10.9% of its yearly health expenditure and 2.9% of its GDP to treat the infections, the report said.