No abstract

This study attempts to figure out the seasonality of the transmissibility of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). A mathematical model was established to calculate the transmissibility based on the reported data for HFMD in Xiamen City, China from 2014 to 2018. The transmissibility was measured by effective reproduction number (Reff) in order to evaluate the seasonal characteristics of HFMD. A total of 43 659 HFMD cases were reported in Xiamen, for the period 2014 to 2018. The median of annual incidence was 221.87 per 100 000 persons (range: 167.98/100,000–283.34/100 000). The reported data had a great fitting effect with the model (R2 = 0.9212, P < 0.0001), it has been shown that there are two epidemic peaks of HFMD in Xiamen every year. Both incidence and effective reproduction number had seasonal characteristics. The peak of incidence, 1–2 months later than the effective reproduction number, occurred in Summer and Autumn, that is, June and October each year. Both the incidence and transmissibility of HFMD have obvious seasonal characteristics, and two annual epidemic peaks as well. The peak of incidence is 1–2 months later than Reff.

No abstract

Vaccination is the most effective and feasible way to contain the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The rapid development of effective COVID-19 vaccines is an extraordinary achievement. This study reviewed the efficacy/effectiveness, immunogenicity, and safety profile of the 12 most progressed COVID-19 vaccines and discussed the challenges and prospects of the vaccine-based approaches in a global crisis. Overall, most of the current vaccines have shown safety and efficacy/effectiveness during actual clinical trials or in the real-world studies, indicating a development of pandemic control. However, many challenges are faced by pandemic control in terms of maximizing the effect of vaccines, such as rapid vaccine coverage, strategies to address variants with immune escape capability, and surveillance of vaccine safety in the medium- and long-terms.

Agricultural soils are suffering from increasing heavy metal pollution, among which, paddy soil polluted by heavy metals is frequently reported and has elicited great public concern. In this study, we carried out field experiments on paddy soil around a Pb-Zn mine to study amelioration effects of four soil amendments on uptake of Cd and Pb by rice, and to make recommendations for paddy soil heavy metal remediation, particularly for combined pollution of Cd and Pb. The results showed that all the four treatments can significantly reduce the Cd and Pb content in the late rice grain compared with the early rice, among which, the combination amendment of lime and phosphate had the best remediation effects where rice grain Cd content was reduced by 85% and 61%, respectively, for the late rice and the early rice, and by 30% in the late rice grain for Pb. The high reduction effects under the Ca + P treatment might be attributed to increase of soil pH from 5.5 to 6.7. We also found that influence of the Ca + P treatment on rice production was insignificant, while the available Cd and Pb content in soil was reduced by 16.5% and 11.7%, respectively.