Abstract

Berakit Village was a hyperendemic malaria area according to the first year malariometric survey carried out in 1982/1983 with a spleen rate between 52.5 - 56.0%, and a parasite rate between 27.1 - 33.3%. An. sundaicus was the potential vector. Sociological studies have never been conducted in this area. The objective of this study was to reduce the malaria morbidity in Berakit Village through sociological intervention with health education about malaria using a learning module, distributed among the households, and followed by weekly mass chemoprophylaxis with chloroquine. Data collections were carried out with questionnaires and observations. After one year intervention the results showed improvement in the knowledge about malaria : the majority of the respondents knew about signs and symptoms, cause of the disease and the breeding places of the vectors. But only half of them were of the opinion that health education about malaria with a learning module was very useful. A change in attitude of the majority of the respondents was observed from their statements about control of vectors, prevention of transmission and with repellents prevention of the disease with regidar drug intake. About the practice of the respondents and key persons, improvement was also observed from the high percentage (93.7%) of the villagers who took the chemoprophylactic drug regidarly because of the active involvement of the key persons. A minority of the respondents however, remained passive until the end of the study. In conclusion, through the learning module the knowledge of the villagers was improved. With this improvement they were motivated to enhance community participation to control malaria. Key persons were needed to control malaria and coordinate the community with the supervision of the local health center physician.