Trending News Today: CVS Health to Limit Opioid Prescription Duration, Dose

As the opioid epidemic continues to surge, CVS Health Corp plans to limit opioid prescriptions to 7 days or less for certain patients, according to The Wall Street Journal. Drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States, with 52,404 fatal drug overdoses in 2015. Limiting the duration and dose of these prescriptions will target certain patients with acute pain who have not previously taken an opioid prescription. The effort is the latest push to combat widespread addiction to painkillers.

This week, officials alerted Orange County residents of a large spike in Aedes mosquitoes, which can transmit the Zika virus, dengue fever, yellow fever, and chikungunya virus. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District reported a 330% increase in the mosquito population across the county just this year, with the highest numbers found in Santa Ana. Officials said they are going door-to-door to inspect homes and eliminate standing water. Reports of the mosquitoes were also found in Anaheim, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Habra, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Orange, Westminster, Brea, and Irvine, according to the LA Times.

Using the CRISPR gene-editing technique, scientists made a fundamental discovery of the earliest days of human development, according to NPR. The finding provides the first direct evidence that manipulating DNA in human embryos can provide insight into how a single cell becomes a complex human. The finding could one day provide new approaches to help with infertility and the use of embryonic stem cells to treat incurable diseases.