It
would appear that malaria antibody concentration
and presumably exposure to blood
sucking insects transmitting it, is closely associated
with the raised autoantibody prevalences
found in our populations. It is, therefore,
more likely that the autoantibodies arise
as a consequence of malaria! exposure than
because of undernutrition or other parasitic
infestations. The value of our particular study
is that we obtained all the serological, anthropomorphic,
and parasito!ogic data from identified
members of a defined population. This
increases the probability that this association
is causal.