IL10 and Plasmodium falciparum malaria: The balance between Th1 cytokines (TNF-α, IFN-γ) and Th2 cytokines (IL-10, IL-4) has been shown to be critical in the development of severe falciparum malaria [15] with IL-10 shown to downregulate the functional activity and the production of TNF-α in Pf infection [16].