The predictive accuracy of HMGB1 was comparable to other acute phase biomarkers associated with inflammatory conditions, such as procalcitonin (PCT) (AUC = 0.72) and soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) (AUC = 0.76), previously reported to improve clinical performance (sensitivity >90% and specificity >80%) when used in biomarker combinations to predict mortality in children with severe malaria[19]. Here, HMGB1 is linked to malaria.