ABSTRACT
Although the purpose of this chapter is to consider the pathogenic role of TNF and other inflammatory mediators in malaria, it is important to emphasise that inflammatory proc esses are not invariably pathological . Fever is a natural host response to malaria and other infections, and in this section we will briefly consider the evidence that in normal cir cumstances the production of pyrogenic and pro-inflanllnatory cytokines plays an important role in anti-malarial host defence.