Dengue is a rapidly spreading mosquito-borne disease caused by the dengue virus (DENV) and has emerged as a severe public health problem around the world. Guangdong, one of the southern Chinese provinces, experienced a serious outbreak of dengue in 2014, which was believed to be the worst dengue epidemic in China over the last 20 years. To better understand the epidemic, we collected the epidemiological data of the outbreak and analyzed 14,594 clinically suspected dengue patients from 25 hospitals in Guangdong. Dengue cases were then laboratory-confirmed by the detection of DENV non-structural protein 1 (NS1) antigen and/or DENV RNA. Afterwards, clinical manifestations of dengue patients were analyzed and 93 laboratory-positive serum specimens were chosen for the DENV serotyping and molecular analysis. Our data showed that the 2014 dengue outbreak in Guangdong had spread to 20 cities and more than 45 thousand people suffered from dengue fever. Of 14,594 participants, 11,387 were definitively diagnosed. Most manifested with a typical non-severe clinical course, and 1.96 % developed to severe dengue. The strains isolated successfully from the serum samples were identified as DENV-1. Genetic analyses revealed that the strains were classified into genotypes I and V of DENV-1, and the dengue epidemic of Guangdong in 2014 was caused by indigenous cases and imported cases from the neighboring Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia and Singapore. Overall, our study is informative and significant to the 2014 dengue outbreak in Guangdong and will provide crucial implications for dengue prevention and control in China and elsewhere.

Background: Globally, Scrub typhus (ST) is a serious public health issues in the rural of Asia-Pacific area. This study aimed to determine the risk factors associated with ST infection in Luhe District, China. Methods: The case-control study was conducted which involved (N=116) cases consisted of a patient who diagnosed with scrub typhus, and nearest neighbours control (N=232) subjects were selected by matching for occupation, place of residence and age (within 5-years) and lacked a history of scrub typhus. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 25.0 for Windows. Results: The mean age of confirmed cases was 58.1(10.15) years, while that of control subjects were 56.14 (11.57). The ratio of farmers in cases and controls subjects was 90 (77.6%) and 187 (80.6%) respectively. There are no significant differences in the demographic characteristics of the study population (P>0.05). Factors including residential site (χ2=8.57, P=0.05), raising small animal and livestock (χ2=31.53, P<0.001), living in the house near to grassland and vegetable (χ2=16.61, P<0.001), piling weeds in the yard (χ2=15.48, P<0.001), piling weed inside the house and around the house (χ2=56.64, P<0.001), and presence of mouse activities in the house (χ2= 3.88, P<0.054) are significant associated with developing of ST infection. The logistic regression analysis showed that Two out of five general exposure factors were identified which include morning exercise in the park (AOR=3.848, 95% CI=1.018-4.544, P=0.047), and working as labourers in vegetable fields (AOR =1.792, 95% CI=1.12-2.87, P=0.016) posed a significant association with ST infection. Conclusions: The people who tend to involved in outdoor activities are exposure to ST infection. The findings derived from this study provide an information in the control and prevention of ST in Luhe, China.