According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2006, 1.2 million people in the U.S. were hospitalized with pneumonia and 55,477 people died from the disease.

Globally, pneumonia kills more than 4 million people every year - half of these deaths occur among children less than 5 years of age. This is greater than the number of deaths from any other infectious disease, such as AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis. The CDC also reports that recent data show that Americans visit the doctor approximately 12 million times each year to get checked for suspected Staph or MRSA skin infection.

A study of the first population-based nationwide estimates of the burden of invasive MSRA disease from active cases published in 2007 found the incidence in 2005 was 31.8 cases per 100,000 persons, with a mortality rate of about 20%. 

Source: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center