Severe malaria and host response: time for a paradigm shift in therapeutic strategies to improve clinical outcome

Despite decades of research, malaria pathogenesis remains incompletely understood. Current efforts focus on using intricate murine models adapted to one particular aspect of the infection process. We propose that malaria pathology can be classified along a clinical spectrum, culminating in two poles of the disease defined, largely, by the host response. As such, integrated approaches, using more than one model, are required to fully understand the complex parasite–host interactions which characterise this disease.

Section editor:W. Conrad Liles – Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada