IFNA1 and hepatitis C virus infection: While the strong induction observed at early time points could be linked to the sporozoite cell traversal and wounding of cells prior infection (Mota et al., 2001), the temporal order and gene composition of the IFN response to P. vivax is remarkably similar to that of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (Sheahan et al., 2014), suggesting rather a common hepatocyte defense mechanism in response to human hepatotropic pathogens.