Moreover, in the malaria patients as a whole IL-18bp correlated positively with degree of parasitemia, disease severity, IL-18 levels and plasma vWF and negatively with platelet counts and kidney function, but in contrast to IL-18, IL-18bp levels were not correlated with haemoglobin levels except from a positive association in malaria patients co-infected with HIV (Table 2). This evidence concerns the gene IL18 and malaria.