Study construction. Between January 7, 2001 and January 6, 2010, 23 897 children were admitted to Kilifi District Hospital from the study area served by the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (DSS), and of these, 3271 were admitted to the Children’s High Dependency Unit. Severe life-threatening malaria was diagnosed in 1127 patients on the High Dependency Unit. Eighty-two samples were missing or had insufficient DNA for genotyping, 23 samples could not be typed for Hp, 16 samples could not be typed for α⁺thalassemia, and 10 samples were missing clinical data. A total of 996 severe malaria cases had complete genotyping and clinical data and were included in the study.