Scarlet fever has resurged in China starting in 2011, and the environment is one of the potential reasons. Nationwide data on 655,039 scarlet fever cases and six air pollutants were retrieved. Exposure risks were evaluated by multivariate distributed lag nonlinear models and a meta-regression model. We show that the average incidence in 2011-2018 was twice that in 2004-2010 [RR = 2.30 (4.40 vs. 1.91), 95% CI: 2.29-2.31; p < 0.001] and generally lower in the summer and winter holiday (p = 0.005). A low to moderate correlation was seen between scarlet fever and monthly NO 2 (r = 0.21) and O 3 (r = 0.11). A 10 μg/m 3 increase of NO 2 and O 3 was significantly associated with scarlet fever, with a cumulative RR of 1.06 (95%

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The Yangtze River Delta is one of the top five Chinese regions affected by COVID-19, as it is adjacent to Hubei Province, where COVID-19 first emerged. We investigated the impact of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on changes in respiratory infectious diseases (RIDs) incidence and air quality in the Yangtze River Delta by constructing two proportional tests and fitting ARIMA and linear regression models. Compared with the pre-COVID-19 period, the average monthly incidence of seven RIDs decreased by 37.80% (p < 0.001) and 37.11% (p < 0.001) during the COVID-19 period and the post-vaccination period, respectively, in Shanghai, and decreased by 20.39% (p < 0.001) and 22.86% (p < 0.001), respectively, in Zhejiang. Similarly, compared with the pre-COVID-19 period, the monthly overall concentrations of six air pollutants decreased by 12.7% (p = 0.003) and 18.79% (p < 0.001) during the COVID-19 period and the post-vaccination period, respectively, in Shanghai, and decreased by 12.85% (p = 0.008) and 15.26% (p = 0.001), respectively, in Zhejiang. Interestingly, no significant difference in overall incidence of RIDs and concentrations of air quality was shown between the COVID-19 period and the post-vaccination period in either Shanghai or Zhejiang. This study provides additional evidence that the NPIs measures taken to control COVID-19 were effective in improving air quality and reducing the spread of RIDs. However, a direct causal relationship has not been established.

Infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV) is the type species of megalocytivirus, Iridoviridae. A novel membrane protein corresponding to the first open reading frame (ORF001L) of ISKNV genome was identified. This 378-residue protein, termed the VP001L protein, has a high content of hydrophobic sequences and contains 10-11 putative transmembrane domains, indicating it may be a membrane protein. The VP001L mRNA start site was extended 433 bp upstream of the start codon and the temporal analysis showed that the VP001L gene was first transcribed at 8 h post-infection (h.p.i.). VP001L protein was detected on the plasma membrane of ISKNV infected cells by immunofluresence. In order to further investigate different transmembrane domains' influence on subcellular localization of VP001L, series of truncated or deleted mutants were constructed with GFP at the C terminus. The transfection results indicated that the second putative transmembrane domain played a determinative role in VP001L's membrane localization and the translocation of the first and third transmembrane domains depended on their interactions with the second one. Therefore, this novel VP001L protein is considered to serve as a model for analyzing the topology and roles of different hydrophobic regions in multi-transmembrane proteins.