Given the obvious limitations of a single-center study and the small sample size, larger cohorts, preferably in areas of the world other than the Arabian Peninsula, are needed to definitively assess the value of β2-m levels as an independent biomarker of disease severity and predictor of outcomes with the advantage of having less fluctuations or extraneous influences than other parameters, such as iron stores for ferritin, coagulopathies for D-dimers and secondary bacterial infections for CRP. The gene discussed is CRP; the disease is bacterial infectious disease.