Malaria is endemic in French Guiana, especially within the gold mining community working illegally. Gold miners travel to remote camps in the forest to carry out their activities, exposing themselves to the presumed contamination area. This paper presents the results of a qualitative case study of the Malakit project, a free distribution of self-diagnosis and self-treatment kits, along with appropriate training/information from health facilitators, at resting sites in Brazil and Suriname on the borders with French Guiana. This study documents how Malakit is part of the care trajectory of gold miners. The data was collected using three methods: 1) on-site observation; 2) semi-structured individual interviews (n=26); 3) semi-structured group interviews (n=2). The results inform us that Malakit responds to the need for treatment and facilitates access to care. Gold miners say they trust the facilitators and receive accurate explanations. The majority of participants find the kit easy to use and to carry and explanations given were sufficient, although some people needed to be reminded how to use it once in the forest. Results remind us that malaria among illegal gold miners in French Guiana is a question of social inequalities in health, where the interaction of the health, social, economic and political contexts of Brazil and French Guiana influence exposure to numerous risk factors. Thus, malaria intervention practices such as Malakit cannot be carried out without considering the complexity generated by social inequalities in health.
Maliqua: A study within Malakit, a project on malaria and gold miners in French Guiana
