In order to investigate whether the persistently high incidence of malaria in Burundi is due to a lack of knowledge of the disease, mothers of children admitted to the hospital of Kiremba in Burundi were anonymously administered a semi-structured questionnaire about malaria. A total of 539 questionnaires were evaluated. About 75% of the women knew that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, and respectively 58.3 and 23.9% knew that it could lead to the death of a fetus or a low birth weight. Fewer than half of the women (44.7%) knew that malaria can be definitely diagnosed by means of a blood examination and only 39.7% indicates that artesunate-amodiaquine was the first-line therapy recommended by the Burundian health authorities. Long-lasting insecticidal or insecticide-treated nets were used by only 33.0%. Burundian women generally know little about malaria. Public awareness programmes should be conducted before any malaria control initiatives are planned.