1 in 25 patients gets infection in hospital: “About 1 in every 25 patients seeking treatment at hospitals acquired an infection there in 2011, according to a new study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Patients acquired some 721,800 infections at hospitals that year, according to the research. Of those infected, about 75,000 died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – although the study did not investigate how often an infection actually caused or contributed to the patient’s death. Pneumonia and surgical-site infections were the most common types of infection – each accounting for about 22% of all infections.

This is the No. 1 cause of disability worldwide: “Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on lower back pain, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and it’s now the No. 1 cause of job disability around the world. In a new study published in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, researchers gathered data from 117 studies from 47 different countries and other supplemental surveys. Lower back pain is the top cause for years lost due to disability (calculated by adding years lost as a result of early death and the number of years lived with disability). About one in 10 people suffer from lower back pain, and prevalence is highest in Western Europe and lowest in the Caribbean and Latin America.