NEW YORK, July 24 (UPI) -- Grieving families across the United States will hold candlelight vigils Friday in memory of those who died of hospital infections, a patient advocate said.

Betsy McCaughey, chairwoman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former lieutenant governor of New York, said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate of 1.7 million hospital-acquired infections is far too small.

"The CDC (NASDAQ:HINA) claims that 1.7 million people contract infections in U.S. hospitals each year. The truth is several times that number," McCaughey said in a statement. "The CDC consistently understates the size of the problem, and their lax guidelines give hospitals an excuse to do too little."

In 2007, approximately 880,000 patients contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus, or MRSA, in the hospital, said a study by the Association of Professionals in Infection Control, which was published in the American Journal of Infection Control last December.

MRSA infections amount to only 8 percent of all hospital infections, according to a nationwide study released last April by Emory University researchers and that figure was confirmed in congressional testimony by Julie Gerberding, head of the CDC, McCaughey said.