GSTM1 and parasitic infectious disease: Although we previously discovered that malaria-infected children with G[−] organisms from this region had reduced parasitemia and enhanced risk of SMA in multivariate analyses controlling for known contributors of childhood anemia [5], differences in erythrocytic indices (e.g., Hb, Hct, RBC count, and SMA) did not differ in the children presented here in which cytokines were measured.