Even though the mechanism through which carriage of the TA haplotype increases susceptibility to SMA remain to be determined in our laboratory, we hypothesize that the presence of the TA haplotype may be promoting non-erythropoietic responses in children with falciparum malaria through alteration of IL-13 promoter binding of transcription factors to the IL-13 promoter region. The gene discussed is IL13; the disease is Plasmodium falciparum malaria.