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Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are a common consequence of infectious diseases and cause high morbidity and mortality. Appropriate antibiotic use is critical for patients' treatment and prognosis. Long-term monitoring and analysis of antimicrobial resistance are important in guiding physicians to choose appropriate antibiotics and understand the changes in antimicrobial resistance and infection control. Here, we report a retrospective study on the trends of antimicrobial resistance in the common BSI-associated pathogens. The identification of strains and antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed in each anticipating hospital independently. Data from the Hubei Province Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (HBARSS) from 1998 to 2017 were retrospectively analyzed using WHONET 5.6 software. Data from HBARSS (1998-2017) revealed that 40,518 Gram-positive bacteria and 26,568 Gram-negative bacteria caused BSIs, the most common of which were and was a predominant BSI-associated pathogen in 1998-2003. Antimicrobial susceptibility data showed that the resistance rates of and to cefotaxime were significantly higher than those to ceftazidime. The proportion of strains of special antimicrobial resistance phenotypes including difficult-to-treat resistance (DTR), carbapenem-resistant (CR), extended-spectrum cephalosporin resistant (ECR) and fluoroquinolone resistant (FQR) in was 0.18%, 0.26%, 13.95%, 22.78% while in was 11.95%, 14.00%, 31.91% and 11.40%, respectively. In 2013-2017, showed resistance levels reaching 15.8% and 17.5% to imipenem and meropenem, respectively, and showed high resistance rates ranging from 60 to 80% to common antibiotics. The detection rate of resistance to third-generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones was less than 5%. Control of methicillin-resistant (MRSA) remains a major challenge, and in 2009-2017, the MRSA detection rate was 40-50%. Prevalence of CR has increased significantly in recent years. Resistance rates of to common antimicrobial agents have increased exponentially, reaching high levels. MRSA remains a challenge to control. For DTR, CR, ECR and FQR were antimicrobial resistance phenotypes that could not be ignored while for DTR and CR were rare antimicrobial resistance phenotypes. CR and MRSA present major challenges for controlling BSIs.

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) causing an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei province of China was isolated in January 2020. This study aims to investigate its epidemiologic history, and analyze the clinical characteristics, treatment regimens, and prognosis of patients infected with 2019-nCoV during this outbreak. Clinical data from 137 2019-nCoV-infected patients admitted to the respiratory departments of nine tertiary hospitals in Hubei province from December 30, 2019 to January 24, 2020 were retrospectively collected, including general status, clinical manifestations, laboratory test results, imaging characteristics, and treatment regimens. None of the 137 patients (61 males, 76 females, aged 20-83 years, median age 57 years) had a definite history of exposure to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Major initial symptoms included fever (112/137, 81.8%), coughing (66/137, 48.2%), and muscle pain or fatigue (44/137, 32.1%), with other, less typical initial symptoms observed at low frequency, including heart palpitations, diarrhea, and headache. Nearly 80% of the patients had normal or decreased white blood cell counts, and 72.3% (99/137) had lymphocytopenia. Lung involvement was present in all cases, with most chest computed tomography scans showing lesions in multiple lung lobes, some of which were dense; ground-glass opacity co-existed with consolidation shadows or cord-like shadows. Given the lack of effective drugs, treatment focused on symptomatic and respiratory support. Immunoglobulin G was delivered to some critically ill patients according to their conditions. Systemic corticosteroid treatment did not show significant benefits. Notably, early respiratory support facilitated disease recovery and improved prognosis. The risk of death was primarily associated with age, underlying chronic diseases, and median interval from the appearance of initial symptoms to dyspnea. The majority of patients with 2019-nCoV pneumonia present with fever as the first symptom, and most of them still showed typical manifestations of viral pneumonia on chest imaging. Middle-aged and elderly patients with underlying comorbidities are susceptible to respiratory failure and may have a poorer prognosis.

Everyday life in contemporary rural China is characterized by an increased sense of moral challenge and uncertainty. Ordinary people often find themselves caught between the moral frameworks of capitalism, Maoism and the Chinese tradition. This ethnographic study of the village of Zhongba (in Hubei Province, central China) is an attempt to grasp the ethical reflexivity of everyday life in rural China. Drawing on descriptions of village life, interspersed with targeted theoretical analyses, the author examines how ordinary people construct their own senses of their lives and their futures in everyday activities: building houses, working, celebrating marriages and funerals, gambling and dealing with local government. The villagers confront moral uncertainty; they creatively harmonize public discourse and local practice; and sometimes they resolve incoherence and unease through the use of irony. In so doing, they perform everyday ethics and re-create transient moral communities at a time of massive social dislocation.

With the rapid development of the social economy, factors of social and economic development in China’s rural areas have been continuously reorganized, and the pattern and distribution of rural residential areas have undergone significant changes. In rural areas, there have been many peculiar phenomena of “reducing people but not reducing land in rural areas, which has caused tremendous pressure on land resource protection. We used geographic detectors and a geographically temporally weighted regression model (GTWR) to explore the rural settlements’ evolution and driving mechanism in Hubei Province from 1990 to 2015. The results show that the kernel density of rural settlements decreased from 1.62 villages/km2 in 1990 to 1.60 villages/km2 in 2015. The scale of rural residential patches has obvious regional differentiation characteristics. From southeast to northwest, there is a wave-like distribution structure of “high-low-high-low-high”, and the clustering characteristics of “cold and hot spots” are strengthened with time. Based on GTWR analysis, the total rural population, total power of agricultural machinery, and rural electricity consumption have promoted the expansion of rural settlements, with the regression coefficients 0.096, 0.484, and 0.878, respectively. Cultivated land, agricultural output value, and rural labor force have negative impacts on the expansion, the regression coefficients of the village were −0.584, −0.510, and −0.109, respectively.

Exploring the changes of ecosystem services value caused by land use transformation driven by urbanization is crucial for ensuring the safety of the regional ecological environment and for enhancing the value of ecosystem services. Based on the land use remote sensing data during the rapid urbanization development period of Hubei Province from 1995 to 2015, this study analyzed the characteristics of land use/land cover change and land use transformation. The spatial–temporal response characteristics and evolution of ecosystem services value (ESV) to land use transformation driven by urbanization were measured by equivalent factor method, spatial autocorrelation analysis, hot spot analysis and gravity model. We found that: (1) Driven by urbanization, the most significant feature of land use transformation in Hubei Province was the expansion of the built-up land and the significant reduction of cropland and forest, among which 90% of the new built-up land was converted from cropland and forest. (2) This land use transformation became the main source of ESV losses. Especially, the sharp increase of the built-up land from 2010 to 2015, occupying cropland and forest, resulted in ESV losses of nearly USD 320 million. The service capacity of climate regulation, soil conservation, gas regulation and food production undertaken by cropland and forest decreased. (3) The ecosystem services value in the study area showed spatial distribution characteristics of high in the west and low in the middle and east regions. The center of gravity of ESV shifted from northwest to southeast. Due to the sharp increase of the built-up land from 2010 to 2015, the center of gravity shift rebounded. This study can help policymakers better understand the trade−offs between land use transformation and ecosystem services driven by urbanization.

We report a case-series study of 5 patients with Japanese spotted fever from the Three Gorges Area in China, including 1 fatal case. Seroprevalence of Rickettsia japonica was ≈21% among the local population. Our report highlights the emerging potential threat to human health of Japanese spotted fever in the area.

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

To discuss the causes and characteristics of occasional severe winter pollution in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China amidst the continuous improvement of the atmospheric environment, this research utilizes air quality monitoring data from various cities in Hubei Province during the winters of 2015–2023, analyzing changes in air quality in Hubei Province using PM2.5 concentration values as an indicator. We employ the Convergent Cross Mapping (CCM) method, using Wuhan and other cities in Hubei Province as examples, to reveal the causal impact of other cities within Hubei Province on winter PM2.5 pollution in Wuhan from a causality perspective. The results indicate an improvement in air quality during the winters of 2015–2023 in Hubei Province. The PM2.5 concentration in Wuhan during winter is influenced by four other cities within Hubei Province, indicating a clear causal relationship between the PM2.5 concentrations in these two regions. The Convergent Cross Mapping (CCM) method accurately identifies both the strength and direction of the causal relationship between two variables, providing invaluable guidance for subsequent research in atmospheric environmental governance.

With the advancement of economic globalization, human activities have continuously disrupted the ecosystem, affecting its structure and function. On the basis of the characteristics of the spatial variations in ecosystem services, the systematic estimation of long-term ecosystem services and the analysis of trade-offs/synergies between different ecosystem services have practical significance for the coordination of economic development and ecological protection. In this study, we employed correlation analysis methods and spatial autocorrelation analysis methods to investigate the heterogeneity and nonlinearity of the trade-off/collaboration relationships among different types of ecosystem services (water resource output (WY), carbon storage (CS), soil conservation (SC), food supply (FS), and net primary productivity (NPP)) in Hubei Province. The results showed that: (1) ecosystem services in Hubei Province exhibited obvious spatial heterogeneity, with high SC, CS and NPP levels in western Hubei and high FS and WY levels in central and eastern Hubei; (2) the trade-offs and synergies among the different ecosystem services in Hubei Province followed obvious nonlinearity, in which CS, SC and NPP exhibited notable synergies, whereas CS, SC and NPP exhibited trade-offs with FS; and (3) areas with a high level of urbanization experienced severe ecosystem damage. The ecosystems in the southeastern and western parts of Hubei Province exhibited a notable synergistic relationship, whereas those in the other regions exhibited a trade-off relationship.