IGHE and coinfection: Although the median total IgE levels in the Indian NEC groups was higher than that of the Gabonese EC group, suggesting that age could be an important factor in IgE production, the higher IgE levels in the Indian population may also be interpreted as the result of either environmental factors, such as predominance of food allergies, of the genetic background, which may predispose to developing IgE responses [13,27,29-32] or of a co-infection with other parasites, such as helminths affecting the IgE responses in these patients [33,34].