In the present systematic review, the major limitation was the fact that most of the information was retrieved from non-peer reviewed sources. However, it seems clear that vivax patients in Brazil are calling the attention of their physicians only recently. Like other infectious diseases, defining severity criteria is a major challenge. As an example, dengue fever specialists have defined 'warning signs' for dengue haemorrhagic fever, the most lethal complication of the infection due to dengue virus, which are early signs that should raise the suspicion of severe dengue but are not applied themselves to the final classification [178] as proper intervention can avoid the patient evolving to more severe stages. Sometimes in the literature potential 'warning signs' for severe vivax malaria are mistaken for severity criteria, which are those ultimately related to increased fatality. WHO severity criteria formerly developed for falciparum disease seem to apply reasonably to vivax disease as well, but there are clearly 'warning signs' that should motivate clinicians from the tropics to observe patients more closely, such as isolated thrombocytopaenia, isolated jaundice or the presence of chronic or acute co-morbidities. For example, during influenza outbreaks, the virus does not necessarily kill per se, but compromises the most vulnerable population and facilitates fatal secondary bacterial infections. The most common complications observed in the field are not necessarily the most frequently reported in the literature, sometimes biased by the uniqueness or exoticness of the cases reported. It is only after 1987 that these cases started to be reported in Brazil in indexed and nonindexed publications, which may simply parallel the increase in the absolute numbers of vivax cases in Brazil, culminating in the more frequent observation of rare clinical events triggered by this parasite. Publication bias may also impact the chronology of these complicated case reports, especially when research group leaderships based in the endemic areas start to look for clinical aspects more closely. It is noteworthy however that studies on pathogenesis must be careful when dealing with severe vivax disease as a single entity. The best approach is to study groups of patients with specific complications (e.g., severe anaemia or ARDS) in order to minimize the risk of heterogeneous groups with probable multifactor causality, including the diversity of host genetics. The amount of complications related to anti-malarial drug use is not negligible, especially primaquine. Multicentric studies using standard protocols, with the proper care of confirming mono-infection by more specific tools (e.g. PCR) and ruling out co-morbidities, are urgently needed to characterize the real spectrum of vivax disease worldwide. Tissues from deceased patients are also waited, in order to support more robust analyses of the mechanisms of death. Without that information, vaccine clinical trials against P. vivax will not be able to include among their endpoints the protection against the severe disease (essentially severe anaemia), which parallels the frequency of severe falciparum anaemia in some endemic areas. The recent discussion on malaria eradication will only succeed if the two parasites which most affect humans begin to be treated as distinct and not causing a single disease. Clinical characterization is the first step to estimate its burden and ultimately to plan any control strategy in the near future.  Protective Role of the ACE2/Ang-(1–9) Axis in Cardiovascular Remodeling Despite reduction in cardiovascular (CV) events and end-organ damage with the current pharmacologic strategies, CV disease remains the primary cause of death in the world. Pharmacological therapies based on the renin angiotensin system (RAS) blockade are used extensively for the treatment of hypertension, heart failure, and CV remodeling but in spite of their success the prevalence of end-organ damage and residual risk remain still high. Novel approaches must be discovered for a more effective treatment of residual CV remodeling and risk. The ACE2/Ang-(1–9) axis is a new and important target to counterbalance the vasoconstrictive/proliferative RAS axis. Ang-(1–9) is hydrolyzed slower than Ang-(1–7) and is able to bind the Ang II type 2 receptor. We review here the current experimental evidence suggesting that activation of the ACE2/Ang-(1–9) axis protects the heart and vessels (and possibly the kidney) from adverse cardiovascular remodeling in hypertension as well as in heart failure. All epidemiological studies show that the risk of adverse cardiovascular (CV) outcomes, such as stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), heart failure (HF), and kidney disease [1] , increase progressively with increasing blood pressure (BP). On the other hand, clinical trials demonstrate that lowering BP reduces such risks [1] . All antihypertensive medications lower BP, but specific drug classes display effects beyond BP reduction (pleiotropic effects) that might contribute to cardiovascular risk reduction.