Investigations on treatment seeking behaviour of the affected communities prior to / during malaria outbreak in Jorhat district of Assam, India revealed 63.7% people initially approached to unqualified village level practitioners as compared to only 25.1% reporting to qualified allopathic doctors (government or private medical practitioners) for the treatment of fever. Clinical recovery rate was nearly double (82.1%) in those who took treatment from qualified doctors than the other group (43.3%), The difference being highly significant (p <0.001). In blood smear examination of people, categorised according to source of treatment, up to 8 weeks after initial fever, slide positive rate (SPR) was highest (27.4%) in those who took treatment from unqualified village level practitioners followed by those remaining without any treatment (SPR 21.9%) and least in those seeking treatment from qualified doctors (SPR 18.6%). Treatment seeking pattern of the community, in general, and its implication on epidemic progression h3s been discussed.