99,000 Americans die of healthcare-acquired infections every year

More work needs to be done to combat the problem of infections acquired in hospitals and doctors’ offices, which the CDC director calls a ‘winnable battle.’ New statistics released by the Alliance for Aging Research paint a grim picture of the financial and human costs of healthcare-associated infections, or HAIs: 1.7 million Americans develop hospital-acquired infections each year, and 99,000 die of HAIs annually. Three-fourths of the infections start in places like nursing homes and doctors’ offices. The economic burden to the U.S. may be as high as $45 billion per year. In 2012, antibiotic-resistant MRSA infections killed more Americans than emphysema, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, and homicide combined. “Healthcare-associated infections disproportionately impact older Americans, take an enormous toll on individuals, their families, and the healthcare system, and could be drastically reduced with more research and innovation in the area,” Lindsay Duvall Clarke, vice president of health programs for the Alliance, told Healthline. “We aim to bring...