Deadly Rise in Infections Resulting from Medical Care

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are costly and deadly and becoming a national crisis, reports “The Silver Book: Healthcare-Associated Infections” by the Alliance for Aging Research.  An estimated 1.7 million Americans develop hospital-acquired HAIs each year at a cost ranging from $28.4 billion to $5 billion.  Roughly 45% of hospital-acquired HAIs are in patients older than 65 years. Indeed, age is a major risk factor for HAIs: hospitalized elderly patients are 2.5-times more likely to develop an HAI, as compared to younger patients.  The Report warns that more than 90% of deaths from C. difficile infections occur in people 65 and older; and in 2008, 75% of HAI methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections occurred in patients older than 50 years, with 46% occuring  in those older than 65 years.