CD36 and alpha thalassemia spectrum: In agreement with observations from one previous study (Krause et al., 2012) but in contrast to those from two others (Williams et al., 2002; Luzzi et al., 1991a), we found that α+thalassemia was associated with reduced binding to CD36, an observation that was most marked in homozygotes (mean binding 1001.7 parasites/mm2 [95% CI 635.9–1450.2] compared to 1913.4 [1329.1–2603.9] in HbAAαα/αα controls (P < 0.001)) (Fig. 1A, S3A & Table S1).