Other studies have also reported increased risk of anemia with malaria among pregnant women in Ghana and elsewhere [35, 37, 53–55] This finding could be linked to the intricate relationship between malaria and anemia such as malaria-induced destruction of non-parasitized and parasitized red cells, impaired erythropoiesis and delayed reticulocyte response due to suppression of the normal erythropoietin response during periods of tissue hypoxia [14–16]. Here, EPO is linked to anemia (phenotype).