Complement activation on the surface of uninfected RBCs presumably increases the rate of turnover of RBCs during malaria infection,116 possibly due to reduced availability of complement regulatory proteins such as CD55.117, 118, 119 Complement‐mediated red cell lysis not only exacerbates the anemia associated with malaria, but will also increase circulating heme and therefore HO‐1 concentrations and reduce the availability of complement components,120 which may impair ability to control invasive bacterial infection (Fig. 4). This evidence concerns the gene HMOX1 and anemia.