The rationale for the study is that-given the documented causal association between HO-1, neutrophil dysfunction and increased susceptibility to non-typhoidal Salmonella bacteraemia [24, 25] -evidence of sustained HO-1 induction in subclinically infected children might explain the epidemiological association between the prevalence of malaria and the incidence of invasive bacterial disease [19, 43, 44]. Here, HMOX1 is linked to malaria.