HP and malaria: We conducted further analysis where we assessed clinical and laboratory indicators of hemolysis, and observed that children with SMA had lower RBC hemoglobin, lower levels of hemoglobin scavenger haptoglobin, and higher levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and heme-oxygenase 1 (HO-1), measures of RBC lysis and oxidative response, than community children or children with severe malaria but without SMA (Table 1).