G6PD and malaria: On the other hand, there is a beneficial effect of G6PD deficiency; some studies have reported that G6PD deficiency provides resistance against malaria as the malaria parasite cannot complete its life cycle in compromised G6PD deficient red blood cells (RBCs) which have a decrease in life span or because of early phagocytosis of deficient RBCs by phagocytes [5, 6].