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. This evidence concerns the gene GSTM1 and anemia (phenotype).