The impact of a community based health education program on the incidence of diarrheal disease in southern Thailand.

This study has demonstrated that additional training of service providers [village health volunteers (VHVs), village health communicators (VHCs)] in combination with the mobilization of village leaders and influentials to promote selective preventive health behavior, can have a marked impact upon the effective practice of these behaviors and diarrheal incidence. Further, this impact can be achieved through the existing staff structure, ie, VHV/VHCs of the national health program. For example, increased contact between these service providers and mothers of children under 5 years through home visits and attendance at meetings held by the service providers, contributed positively to the practice of selected preventive behaviors. If the national program provided similar training inputs on the promotion of selected preventive behaviors and increased service provider contacts, the program's impact upon diarrheal disease would be enhanced.

Diethylene glycol removal by Echinodorus cordifolius (L.): the role of plant-microbe interactions.

This work presents the use of the plant Echinodorus cordifolius for remediating diethylene glycol (DEG) contaminated waters. The potential of this plant for treating DEG wastewater in a remediation system was observed. We found that E. cordifolius was able to remove DEG from wastewater, decrease the pH to neutral and remove approximately 95% of the chemical oxygen demand within 12 days. The plants can grow well in DEG wastewater, as indicated by their root and leaf biomass, which was found to be statistically similar to control. Wilting, chlorosis and necrosis were observed in DEG-treated plants, but the relative water content was not significantly different between control and treated plants, suggesting that the plants were able to take up and tolerate DEG present in the wastewater. Plant roots changed to black colour during experimental period. The fluorescence in situ hybridisation and bacterial enrichment confirmed that 4.30 × 10(5) cells/g of sulphate reducing bacteria and 9.30 × 10(8) cells/g of acid-producing bacteria were found associated with the plant roots. Furthermore, volatile fatty acids were found in non-sterile soil treatments, indicating that soil microorganisms are associated with DEG remediation. These results demonstrated that plants and bacteria have the ability to form a relationship to remove the organic contaminant DEG.