Maldives becomes the first ever nation to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of three critical diseases.

The Republic of Maldives has become the first ever country to achieve the end of mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B, HIV, and Syphilis, according to a press release issued by the World Health Organization on 13 October 2025. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Syphilis in the country was achieved in 2019, with the conformation this month that mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B has been eliminated making the Maldives the world's first county to achieve 'triple-elimination' of these diseases.

A mother is using traditional Maldivian cooking utensils to prepare a meal for her children. Ibrahim Asad/WHO Maldives.

Maldives forms part of the WHO Southeast Asia Region, which (confusingly) also includes most South Asian countries, and is based in New Delhi. It is estimated that across this region, more than 24 000 pregnant women were infected with Syphilis, an and over 8000 babies were born with the congenital form of the disease. In the same year, more than 25 000 pregnant women received treatment to prevent them passing on HIV to their babies. Figures relating to mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B are not available, but more than 24 million people across the region are living with the disease.

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the Spirochaete Bacterium Treponema pallidum. The symptoms of Syphilis can be variable, and it can go through long periods of dormancy, making the disease difficult to diagnose without modern testing methods. Syphilis infection in pregnant women leads to a raised risk of miscarriage, and infants born with the disease are prone to physical deformities, damage to the liver and spleen, and neurological problems. Syphilis can be treated with a range of antibiotics, including penicillin, although the development of a vaccine has proved difficult.

Scanning electron microscope image of Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of Syphilis. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wikimedia Commons.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, is a form of Lentivirus which causes infections in Humans, spread through sexual intercourse or exchange of blood. Notably, the Virus infects the cells of the Human immune system, where it is hard for that immune system to attack, and eventually leads to a breakdown of the immune system known as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), during which the body becomes vulnerable to a wide range of infections, including many by micro-organisms which are not usually pathogenic. Untreated, HIV invariably leads to AIDS, and AIDS is invariably fatal, but, as with Syphilis, HIV infections can go through long phases of dormancy, leaving infected people unaware that they have the disease. Neither an effective vaccine nor a cure for HIV has yet been developed, however, it is possible to suppress the infection with a combination of anti-viral drugs, allowing patients to lead relatively normal lives, as long as their supply of antivirals is not interrupted. Children born to mothers with HIV are not automatically infected, as the Virus is usually unable to cross the placenta, but there is a high chance of infection during birth if the mother is not receiving treatment.

Scanning electron microscope image of an HIV virion. Hockley et al. (1988). 

Hepatitis B is Viral infection of Humans, primarily targeting the cells of the liver. It can be transmitted through sexual intercourse, blood-to-blood infections, or from mother-to-child during pregnancy. Hepatitis B is seldom fatal, but untreated it can cause recurring bouts of debilitating nausea, accompanied by jaundice, vomiting, stomach cramps, and exhaustion. Untreated Hepatitis B can leave patients vulnerable to cirrhosis and liver cancer, which can prove fatal. Not all people infected with Hepatitis B ever develop symptoms, though children born with the infection are both more prone to symptoms and more prone to severe symptoms. An effective vaccine has been available for Hepatitis B since 1991. Most adults infected with Hepatitis B fight of the infection on their own, although it can be treated with a range of anti-viral drugs.

Hepatitis B Virus cells. Graham Beards/Wikimedia Commons.

Maldives has achieved its 'triple elimination' through a combination of extensive free anti-natal care, testing for all three diseases, and vaccinations against Hepatitis B, with around 95% of pregnant women in the country thought to have been reached. These policies form part of a system of free universal healthcare for all residents of the islands, including migrants, with over 10% of the country's GDP being invested in healthcare. 

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Plectranthias raki: A new species of Perchlet from the Maldives.

The term 'Perchlet' applies to a wide variety of small Perciform Fish. The genus Plectranthias is a member of the Serranidae, the family which also includes Sea Bass and Groupers, amongst other groups. It currently contains 66 described species from mesophotic reef environments in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Plectranthias are small Fish, typically 5-10 cm long with the largest species reaching about 20 cm, which live in holes or crevices, from where they ambush small, mobile invertebrates. The small size and cryptic nature of Plectranthias means that they are not well studied, with most species described from a very small number of specimens.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 16 January 2024, Bart Shepherd of the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences, Hudson Pinheiro of the Department of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences, and the Center for Marine Biology at the University of São Paulo, Ahmed Najeeb, also of the Department of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences, and of the Maldives Marine Research Institute, Claudia Rocha, again of the Department of Ichthyology and of the Department of Microbiology at the California Academy of Sciences, and Luiz Rocha, once again of the Department of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences, describe a new species of Plectranthias from the Kuramathi Outer Reef on Rasdhoo Atoll in the Maldives.

The new species is described from two specimens collected by hand-netting at a depth of 118 m, in December 2022, and confirmed as a new species by gene-sequencing. It is named Plectranthias raki, where 'raki' means 'feeling shy to confront people' in the Dhivehi language which is spoken in the Maldives.

Living specimen (not retained) of Plectranthias raki photographed at 110 m depth at Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives. Luiz Rocha in Shepherd et al.  (2025).

The two specimens of Plectranthias raki are 66.15 and 70.41 mm long, and pinkish white in colour with a series of irregular orange-red patches, these being more red towards the tail and more yellow towards the head. Both have dorsal fins with fifteen rays, anal fins with seven rays, pectoral fins with thirteen rays, and tail fins with nine upper rays and eight lower rays.

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Part of Chinese rocket falls into the Indian Ocean to the west of the Maldives.

Part of a Chinese Long March 5B heavy-lift launch vehicle has fallen into the Indian Ocean to the west of the Maldives. The rocket, which was used to launch the Tianhe Module of the new Chinese Space Station on Thursday 29 April 2021, but entered an unstable elliptical orbit after the launch, leading to concerns that it might fall to Earth on a populated area of Europe, the Middle East, or South Asia. In the event it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere over the Arabian Peninsula early on Sunday 9 May 2021, with much of the spacecraft's mass being burned up in the atmosphere, and the remainder falling into the ocean to the west of the Maldives.

 

Part of the Chinese Space Station being launched on 29 April 2021. Po Xiaoxu/Xinhua/AP/Picture Alliance.

The uncontrolled re-entry of the rocket booster has attracted criticism from space technology experts in Europe and the US, who have raised concern about the rising number of Chinse rocket portions falling to Earth. In May 2020 two parts of a Chinese launch vehicle fell off the coast of Mauritania and on the village of Mahounou in Côte d'Ivoire, in July 2019 part of another booster re-entered the atmosphere over Florida, but is thought to have completely burned up before hitting the ground, and in November 2016 part of a launcher fell onto a jade mine in Myanmar, although nobody was injured in any of these incidents.

The parts of a Long March 5b rocket. Xinhua/China Daily/BBC.

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Carcharhinus melanopterus: Leucism in Blacktip Reef Sharks.

Leucism is a pigment deficiency in which a prenatal enzyme deficiency results in low levels of the pigment melanin, although it is not completely absent as in albinism. Typically this results in a partial or total loss of pigmentation across all or part of the body, but normal pigmentation of the eyes. Leucism is known in a variety of vertebrate groups, including Mammals, Amphibians, Crocodilians, Turtles, Squamates, Teleost Fish and Sharks.

In a paper published in the journal Coral Reefs on 12 February 2018, Andrew Bruckner and Georgia Coward of Coral Reef CPR, describe an instance of leucism in Blacktip Reef Sharks, Carcharhinus melanopterus, from Baa Atoll in the Maldives.

Blacktip Reef Sharks are usually yellow-brown in colour, with a white belly and black on the tips of their dorsal fin, the edges of their pectoral fins, and the upper lobe of their tails. An unusual colour variation was observed in eight young Sharks in a nearshore nursery used by Sharks under a year old, alongside about 25 Sharks with normal colouration. These Sharks had mottled colouration, though they still had the black tips and edges to their fins, and normal eye colouration, strongly suggesting that the condition was a form of leucism. The Sharks were observed for six months and their pigmentation did not alter.

Abnormal pigmentation in four Carcharhinus melanopterus individuals. (a) Partial body leucism and normal pigmentation. (b) Normal pigmentation and extreme case of abnormal pigmentation. (c) Two individuals with abnormal pigmentation. (d) Abnormal pigmentation between the head and trunk and on the fins. Bruckner & Coward (2018). 

Leucism is potentially harmful to small Sharks such as Blacktips, as it removes their natural camouflage, making them more vulnerable to predators. The condition can be caused by a variety of factors, including inbreeding, environmental stress or exposure to high temperatures, all of which are potential factors in the Maldives. The islands suffered from heavy overfishing, which reduced population sizes for many Fish. There is also a current construction boom in the Maldives, with land reclamation projects and building on reefs, largely associated with tourism developments. The area also suffered from elevated seawater temperatures in 2015-16 due to an El Niño event.

The El Niño is the warm phase of a long-term climatic oscillation affecting the southern Pacific, which can influence the climate around the world. The onset of El Niño conditions is marked by a sharp rise in temperature and pressure over the southern Indian Ocean, which then moves eastward over the southern Pacific. This pulls rainfall with it, leading to higher rainfall over the Pacific and lower rainfall over South Asia. This reduced rainfall during the already hot and dry summer leads to soaring temperatures in southern Asia, followed by a rise in rainfall that often causes flooding in the Americas and sometimes Africa. Worryingly climatic predictions for the next century suggest that global warming could lead to more frequent and severe El Niño conditions, extreme weather conditions a common occurrence.

 

Movements of air masses and changes in precipitation in an El Niño weather system. Fiona Martin/NOAA.

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Antipathozoanthus obscurus, Antipathozoanthus remengesaui, & Antipathozoanthus cavernus: Three new species of Parazoanthid Soft Coral from the Indo-Pacific region.

Parazoanthid Corals are colony forming Soft Corals noted for their tendency to grow on other benthic filter feeding animals, typically Sponges but sometimes Corals or other organisms, a form of facultative parasitism in which the Parazoanthid benefits from currents generated by the larger organism, while at the same time covering part of its surface, reducing the host’s ability to feed itself. Parazoanthids usually lack symbiotic Algae, and inhabit dark environments such as marine caves and deep sea cold seeps, where there are few predators, but also little food and limited natural currents, and thereby rely on their host’s ability to generate a current to survive.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 29 December 2017, Hiroki Kise of the Molecular Invertebrate Systematics and Ecology Laboratory at the University of the Ryukyus, and the Palau International Coral Reef Center, Takuma Fujii, also of the Molecular Invertebrate Systematics and Ecology Laboratory at the University of the Ryukyus, and of the Research Center for Island Studies Amami Station of Kagoshima University, Giovanni Diego Masucci and Piera Biondi, again of the Molecular Invertebrate Systematics and Ecology Laboratory at the University of the Ryukyus, and James Davis Reimer, once again of the Molecular Invertebrate Systematics and Ecology Laboratory at the University of the Ryukyus, and the Palau International Coral Reef Center, and of the Tropical Biosphere Research Center of the University of the Ryukyus, describe three new species of Parazoanthid Soft Coral from the Indo-Pacific region. All are placed in the genus Antipathozoanthus, which gets its name from its habit of overgrowing Antipatharian (Black) Corals.

The first new species described is given the name Antipathozoanthus obscurus, meaning ‘dark’ in reference to the dark environments in which it was found. The species was found in caves and crevices on reefs at depths of between 3 and 15 m, and, unusually, grew on a rocky, non-living substrate, where it was possibly able to survive due to strong currents generated by tidal action, which may have carried planktonic food into the caves. Polyps of this species reach 5-10 mm in height, with an oral disk that opens to a similar size in diameter, and have between 26 and 32 brown or orange tentacles. These polyps are connected by stolons which form a mesh-like network. The whole is covered by an encrustation of sand and other particles up to 8 mm in size. The species was found in the Okinawa Islands of Japan, and around Al Wajh Shaybarah on the Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia, which suggests a far wider distribution, probably encompassing the entire Indian Ocean and Western Pacific, and possibly further afield. 

Specimen of Antipathozoanthus obscurus. Collected from Cape Bise, Motobu, Okinawajima Island, Japan (26°42'34.4"N, 127°52'49.2"E) at a depth of 5 m by James Davis Reimer. Kise et al. (2017).

The second species described is named Antipathozoanthus remengesaui, in honour of Tommy Esang Remengesau, Jr., the current president of the Republic of Palau, for his support of marine research and conservation in Palau. This species was found growing on colonies of Corals of the genus Antipathes growing around the entrances to caves at depths of between 9 and 40 m, at Kagoshima (Japan) and Palau in the Pacific Ocean, in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and around Al Wajh Shaybarah on the Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia. Polyps of this species are white in colour and reach 3-8 mm in height, with oral disks up to 8 mm in diameter, surrounded by 40-42 pinkish, translucent tentacles up to 4 mm in length. These polyps are solitary, or only weakly connected by a poorly developed coenenchyma. This species also tends to develop a coating of sand particles, though these tend to be smaller, at 1-3 mm.

Antipathozoanthus remengesaui, colony connected by poorly developed coenenchyma with white polyps on Antipathes sp., collected from Blue Hole, Palau (7°8'29.4"N, 134°13'23.3"E) at a depth of 23 m by James Davis Reimer. Kise et al. (2017).

The final species described is named Antipathozoanthus cavernus, in reference to its habit of living in caves. This species was found growing on colonies of the Coral Myripathes around cave entrances and on steep slopes at depths of between 19 and 39 m in Kagoshima and the Maldives. Polyps of this species reach 3-10 mm in height and have an orange oral disk 4-15 mm in diameter, surrounded by 32-40 translucent tentacles up to 5 mm in length. The polyps are connected by a highly developed coenenchyma, and again the colony is coated in sand and other particles 1-8 mm in size. 

Antipathozoanthus cavernus polyps connected by highly developed coenenchyme with orange ring around oral disk, collected from Siaes Tunnel, Palau (7°18'54.8"N, 134°13'13.3"E) at a depth of 39 m by James Davis Reimer. Kise et al. (2017).

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A new species of Wormshrimp from the Maldives.

Wormshrimps are a poorly understood group of Amphipod Crustaceans found living in a variety of subterranean environments, including the interstitial spaces in sandy sediments from beaches to the deep ocean floors, to cave systems and fresh and brackish groundwater systems on continents. They are thought to be common in sandy environments on tropical reefs, but how they are dispersed is a mystery, as their larvae are not free-swimming and they produce low numbers of eggs (large numbers of eggs are thought to be a pre-requisite for trans-oceanic distribution, as most are expected to be lost without reaching a new home).

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 22 October 2014, RonaldVonk of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden and the Institute forBiodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam, and DamiáJaume of the Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados, describe a new species of Wormshrimp from coral reef sand off Magoodhoo Island in the Maldives.

The new species is placed in the genus Ingolfiella and given the specific name maldivensis, in reference to the area where it was found. The species is described from six female specimens, one collected from Blue Cove and five from  Dharamboodhoo Reef, both close to Magoodhoo Island in the Maldive Archipelago, in the  central Indian Ocean. The Ingolfiella maldivensisspecimens range from 1.55 to 1.85 mm in length. It is an elongate, worm-like Crustacean, with lateral lobes on its head and javelin-shaped spines on its mouthparts.

Ingolfiella maldivensis, female 1.80 mm (including telescoped body somites). Arrows point to gills and oostegites on the third and fourth pereiopods, and on gills on the fifth pereiopod. Vonk & Jaume (2014).

Ingolfiella maldivensis closely resembles Ingolfiella quadridentata, a species known only from Curaçao in the Caribbean. Wormshrimps often resemble other species from distant locations living in similar environments far more than they resemble species living close by in different environments. Vonk and Jaume suggest that this is due to the group being particularly prone to parallel evolution (distantly related species developing similar features in response to similar environmental pressures, rather than some unknown distribution method.

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Two new species of Amphipod Crustacean from the Gulf of Thailand.

Amphipods are (mostly) small, laterally compressed Crustaceans with differentiated legs (i.e. not all their legs are the same). Female Amphipods carry their eggs in brood pouches till they hatch; the young resemble the adults and typically reach maturity after about six molts. 

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A new species of Rabbitfish from southern India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Rabbitfish (Siganidae) are morphologically conservative Perciforme Fish found on Coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific Region. They get their name from their prominent front teeth, which are used scrape algae from Coral reefs and other hard substrates. All Rabbitfish conform to three basic shapes, with deep bodied forms, slender bodied forms and streamlined spindle-shaped forms. There are thought to be about 27 species, which can be separated on a mixture of colouration and genetic data. It is likely that the group contains many cryptic species.

The species name Siganus lineatus is currently used to describe Rabbitfish from southern India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Australasia, the Philippines and the west Pacific Islands. It has been thought for some time that the central Indain Ocean Populations are a separate species, but only limited data on these Fish has been available, based upon preserved specimens in museum collections that have lost their colouration

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 30 May 2014, David Woodland of Zoology at the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England in New South Wales and Charles Anderson of Manta Marine Pvt Ltd in Malé in the Republic of Maldives, describe the Rabbitfish from southern India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives as a separate species, based upon genetic and colour information.

The new species is named Siganus insomnis, meaning ‘sleepless’, due to its nocturnal lifestyle. It is a blue Rabbitfish with a silvery belly and a distinctive pattern of bronze or golden bronze spots and stripes. It forms large schools in the waters around Sri Lanka, particularly around Coral and sandstone reefs and Sea Grass beds. The juveniles are found in brackish estuaries and lagoons. In India the species is found in Vembanad Kayal, a 200 km brackish lake running parallel to the coast in Kerala State, and in the Gulf of Mannar, where the juveniles are found in brackish estuaries and the adults on coral reefs. It was found on a number of coral atols in the Maldives, notably Faadhippolhu in the north and Kolhumadula and Addu in the south. 

Siganus insomnis, subadults, about 15–20 cm long, Horubadhoo Island, Baa Atoll, Maldives. Dieter Grage in Woodland & Anderson (2014).

Siganus insomnis, large adults, about 35 cm SL, Komandoo Island, Lhavyani Atoll, Maldives. Dieter Grage in Woodland & Anderson (2014).

Siganus insomnis, adults, about 30 cm SL, Third Reef off Negombo, Sri Lanka. Susan Anderson in Woodland & Anderson (2014).

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 A new species of Sweeper from the Comoro Islands.

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  The new species of Anthia from the Marquesa Islands in French Polynesia.

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 New species of Wrasse from the Unfortunate Islands.

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