Consistent with the view that severe malaria disease is, at least in part, an inflammatory process mediated by disordered immune responses [14] many of these traits are polymorphisms in genes that are relevant to immunity and inflammation such as the tumor necrosis factor (TNF, MHC class III region, reviewed in [15], Toll-like receptors (TLR-4,9) [16], CD40 ligand (CD40L) [17], the interferon gamma (IFNG) (reviewed in [18]), and the Nitric oxide synthase type 2 (NOS2A) genes (reviewed in [19]). The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is malaria.