Over the past two decades, the Republic of Maldives has seen a resurgence of certain insect-born infectious diseases that were considered eradicated, such as lymphatic filariasis and tsutsugamushi fever. This has coincided with the emergence of new epidemic diseases. Dengue fever has been endemic in the Maldives as of 2004. Since the major chikungunya outbreak swept through many island nations and coastal regions in the Indian Ocean in 2005–2006, the local population, migrant workers and, in isolated cases also tourists have contracted these zoonotic diseases every year.

This project ethnographically documents aspects of the history of zoonoses and vector-borne diseases in the Maldives from World War II to the present. Adopting a medical anthropological island studies approach, it explores connections between dynamic human–animal encounters in the drastically altered ecology of these small coral islands and the transmission of pathogens.

Project leader:
Eva-Maria Knoll
 

Duration:
01.05.2026-30.10.2027
 

Financing:
Poech-Erbschaft (OeAW)