Evaluation of HIV/AIDS education initiatives among women in northeastern Thai villages.

A longitudinal, naturalistic experimental design was used in an evaluation of the effects of an HIV/AIDS educational pamphlet controlling for secular trends (most specifically media coverage of HIV/AIDS) in Northeastern Thailand. Nine hundred and fifty-four women from 18 villages completed KAP interviews either in the autumn of 1991 or 1992 with HIV/AIDS education pamphlets distributed to every household in 12 of these villages in the spring of 1992. Pamphlets influenced women's perceptions of personal risk from casual sources and the degree to which they volunteered that condoms were a means of prevention of HIV transmission. Both results were related to the content and style of presentation of information about sources of risk and about condoms in the pamphlets. Secular trends and an increase in communication between villagers had a significant influence on knowledge, perceived efficacy of self protection, readiness to use condoms, and perception of levels and sources of personal risk.

Red rubber bulb, cheap and effective vacuum drainage.

Red rubber bulbs have been used for vacuum drainage in head, neck, breast and several other operations by the authors since 1975 quite effectively without any major problems. The vacuum pressure of the red rubber bulbs was found to be higher than the expensive commercially available vacuum wound drainage device. The question of remaining old blood and infective microorganisms inside the reservoir for the reused ones were tested by the manual cleaning process and the standard sterile technique using steam under increased pressure (autoclave). The result is quite satisfactory. We encourage the use of this cheap and effective (made in Thailand) vacuum wound drainage in Thai hospitals and Thai medical schools.