Fewer Red Foxes Means More Lyme Disease

Ecological Epidemiology: The increase in coyotes may be spurring the spread of Lyme disease. Coyotes displace red foxes, and foxes do a much better job at controlling the population of mice that serve as a reservoir for Lyme disease reports Kelly Slivka for the New York Times.

Health Care Costs: The easing of health care cost growth is likely to disappear when the economy heats up again reports Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar for the AP.

Painkiller Abuse: Heavy lobbying from pharmacists and drugstores is said to have killed a bill that would have attempted to put stricter controls on prescription drugs, reports Robert Pear for the New York Times.

Microbiome: Carl Zimmer writes in the New York Times about the shift from thinking of medicine as a war against germs, to an ecological approach of tending the body’s diverse species.

Pediatric Medication: Kids are taking less antibiotics but more drugs for ADHD and for birth control, reports Michael Smith for MedPage Today.

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Photo credit: Mike Baird via Flickr