It has been observed that pDC during the first 2 years of life produce lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and exhibit an immature anti-viral response which could explain why a positive association was seen at study entry suggesting a potential expansion in response to infection but a negative association with VL at 10 months of age which could be possibly due to a more developed anti-viral response [7, 26, 27]. This evidence concerns the gene PDC and infection.