In order to extend these observations to human infection, we measured C5a levels in the peripheral blood of a cohort of malaria-exposed primigravid Kenyan women and we measured C5a levels in the placental blood of a similar cohort of malaria-exposed primigravid women at time of delivery (Table 1–2) Significantly increased levels of C5a were found in peripheral blood (Figure 5A) and the placental blood (Figure 5B) of pregnant women with PM compared to those without. Here, C5 is linked to malaria.