Effects of media reporting on mitigating spread of COVID-19 in the early phase of the outbreak.

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is running rampantly in China and is swiftly spreading to other countries in the world, which causes a great concern on the global public health. The absence of specific therapeutic treatment or effective vaccine against COVID-19 call for other avenues of the prevention and control measures. Media reporting is thought to be effective to curb the spreading of an emergency disease in the early stage.

Implication of sexual transmission of Zika on dengue and Zika outbreaks.

Dengue and Zika viruses belong to the same Flavivirus family and usually cocirculate within the same area. Both the viruses can be transmitted by a common mosquito species Aedes aegypti. However, non-vector-borne transmission of Zika virus, such as sexual transmission and vertical transmission, has been reported in recent studies.