With the aggravation of air pollution, global warming, and the development of economic globalization, novel infectious diseases such as COVID-19 have emerged, and some traditional infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, dengue, etc., are resurging. Infectious diseases bring massive disease and economic burden, as well as psychological stress, which remain a significant threat to global health. Also, it is important to point out that ambient environment influences infectious diseases’ spread in a variety of ways. Thus, understanding of the determinants of infectious diseases and disentanglement of the complicated relationships between environment and infectious diseases’ development are of decisive importance.

Air pollution and meteorological factors are the two most concerned environmental factors. As the fifth largest contributor to death, air pollution is considered to have the potential modifying infectious diseases through inflammatory effects, immune dysregulation, metabolic pathways, and inhalational allergies. However, the impacts of air pollution or the mitigating policies, is not fully elucidated for various infectious diseases across different countries and regions in the world. Moreover, meteorological factors, such as temperature and precipitation, affect infectious diseases by influencing transmission vectors, altering human adaptability, and changing activity patterns, which provide valuable predictive information on incident infectious diseases. These two environmental factors may further interact and modify the effects of each other, which merits further investigation, as well as the vulnerable groups and spatial differences.

To aid the in-depth understanding of infectious diseases and construct the framework of environment-health interaction based on an unique perspective, this Research Topic provides a platform for sharing the latest insights and findings, focusing on the impacts of air pollution and meteorological factors on infectious diseases. It calls for research works and reviews that quantify the effects of those environmental factors or their response policies on infectious diseases in different countries and regions, exploring the potential interactions between multiple exposures, and developing reliable predictive models based on environmental information. As an integration of the above studies, this Research Topic could promote scientific advances and serve as a reference for the development of early warning systems, for the formulation of targeted disease prevention policies, and for specific guidelines for vulnerable populations.

We prefer submissions of Original Research Articles, Reviews, and Mini-Reviews covering, but are not limited to, the following topics:
• Effects of air pollutants (e.g., particulate matter, O3, NO2, SO2, CO) and air quality on health outcomes related to infectious diseases
• Effects of multiple meteorological factors (e.g., temperature, rainfall/precipitation, humidity, wind properties) on health outcomes related to infectious diseases
• Impacts of mitigation policies targeting air pollution or extreme meteorological conditions on the onset or development of infectious diseases
• The interaction, or the modification effects between multiple exposures to air pollution and meteorological factors
• Vulnerable groups, regional differences, and prevention measures on this research topic
• Novel predictive models for infectious disease, incorporating air pollution and meteorological factors

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Frontiers in Public Health

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