Fig. 3.

Malaria and anaemia increase susceptibility to iNTS in children. Healthy children are capable of restricting NTS colonisation and invasion within the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) through due to their normal flora and efficient epithelial barrier (Fig. 3A). Malaria can impair the gut-epithelial barrier, thus favouring NTS translocation to the blood stream (Fig. 3B). Humoral (antibody and complement) and cellular (monocytes and neutrophils) immunity to NTS can be compromised due to malaria-induced anaemia, products from malaria parasites and also immune responses to malaria parasites which concomitantly favour the proliferation and dissemination of NTS (Fig. 3C).