A primary health care project in Sarawak.

A joint pilot project between the Ministry of Health and the Dept. of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Malaya, to test the value of village aides in extending the health care system into isolated Iban communities was begun in May 1979 in the Entabai District of Sarawak. A group of 15 village aides consisting of 11 traditional Iban manangs (medicine men) and 4 youths were trained to provide primary health care including simple curative care, preventive care, and to assist in the detection of malaria. Evaluation carreid out 2 years later showed the following. With regard to curative care, the village aides were each, on the average, treating 70.6 patients/month, the most common complaint being headache (30.4%), which along with abdominal pain, constipation, bodyache, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, worm infections, cough, and sore throat, accounted for 89% of all illnesses seen by them. Subsequent to the introduction of village aides in the project area, the number of seriously ill patients requiring admission to the rest beds of the klinik desa dropped by 43.8% and the number of emergency referrals to the backup divisional hospitals fell by 46.1% showing that patients were coming to the klink desa for treatment at an earlier stage. The 11 traditional Iban manangs, who had recently received training had, on their own accord, drastically reduced the use of traditional Iban modes of therapy in preference for modern medicine. During the 24 months immediately after the introduction of village aides into Entabai, 9 gravity feed water supply systems together with related health packages advocating general cleanliness, the use of latrines, and fences were affected, whereas only 6 such systems were installed in the previous 24 months, indicating that it is likely that the village aides were of some assistance in mobilizing the community with respect to self-help efforts. During the same period, the majority of longhouses in the area successfully established a number of vegetable gardens growing foods for home consumption, and continue to vigorously advocate breastfeeding of infants in opposition to bottlefeeding. During the 23 months after village aides were introduced, a total of 1093 blood films were collected by the 15 village aides, the average number of blood films/village aide being 3.2 blood slides/month. Village aides are socially accepted by the Iban community who utilize their curative skills when mild illness disturb them, but who proceed directly to the klinik desa when more serious illness such as fever strike. The project has established clear lines of communication between the health team and the community, and has stimulated the community to organize itself to achieve an increasingly high level of health through community participation and self-reliance. Plans have been approved in principle to train a further 2000 village aides in primary health care for the state of Sarawak.