HIVQUAL-T: monitoring and improving HIV clinical care in Thailand, 2002-08.

Objective: We report experience of HIVQUAL-T implementation in Thailand.

Design: Program evaluation.

Setting: Twelve government hospital clinics.

Access to HIV testing for sex workers in Bangkok, Thailand: a high prevalence of HIV among street-based sex workers.

We offered voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV and syphilis to women attending three public sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics in Bangkok, Thailand from May 2004 to June 2006. The testing was performed at either one of three STI clinics in Bangkok or at mobile VCT in the same area as the outreach activity. Six-hundred eighty-four women were tested.

Prevalence of hepatitis B, tetanus, hepatitis A, human immunodeficiency virus and feasibility of vaccine delivery among injecting drug users in Bangkok, Thailand, 2003-2005.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), tetanus, hepatitis A virus (HAV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in injecting drug users (IDUs), risk factors associated with infection and the feasibility of HBV vaccine delivery in HBV seronegatives.

Methods: Cross-sectional seroprevalence survey of 1535 IDUs recruited from 17 Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) methadone clinics and HBV vaccination of seronegatives.

Results: Prevalence of antibody to HBV, tetanus, HAV and HIV was 87.

A randomized, placebo-controlled trial to assess the safety and acceptability of use of carraguard vaginal gel by heterosexual couples in Thailand.

Objectives: To determine the safety and acceptability of use of Carraguard, a carrageenan-derived candidate microbicide gel, during sexual intercourse in women and men.

Study Design: We conducted a 6-month randomized, placebo-controlled trial among sexually active, couples at relatively lower risk for HIV infection in northern Thailand.

Methods: Women inserted 1 applicator of study gel vaginally every time the couple had sex.

HIV communication between husbands and wives: effects on husband HIV testing in northern Thailand.

In northern Thailand, where substantial male-to-female transmission of HIV has occurred in stable partnerships, the relationships between counseling, communication, and HIV-preventive behaviors in married couples have not been well studied. In a study of HIV incidence among women in northern Thailand, each participant was advised to learn her husband's HIV-infection status and was asked to bring him for an interview at the final 12-month follow-up visit. Of the 337 men interviewed, 58% reported having ever had an HIV test.