At the international conference on AIDS in Montreal recently, where he handed out condom key chains to anyone within reach, he stressed the need for AIDS education in Bangkok, home to most of the country s 100,000 drug users. Most are male and heterosexual, he said, and are putting millions of women at risk. He notes that, although many Thais are worried about AIDS, they know relatively little about it. But the spread of family planning has provided a role model. Over the course of four years a network of community-based workers has been established in 16,000 villages.
Contraceptives are now readily available.
T-shirts display a modified portrait of the Mona Lisa, condoms in hand. Even elephants have become walking billboards, reminding villagers to Think Condom . If AIDS prevention is to succeed, reckons Dr Mechai, it has to begin at an early age. That means working with primary school children, getting them to blow up condoms instead of balloons so that they grow up to be adults who are not embarrassed by a simple device that should be worn by half the world s population. Alphabet songs should also be adapted to educate - for example B for Birth, C for condom , says Dr Mechai.