THURSDAY already – and that means eight days to the end of February. 2008 is a Leap Year, when poor old undernourished February suddenly sprouts another day and those born on Feb 29 can celebrate a rare birthday.
***
IF they would be turning say, 24 under the normal calendar, they’ll actually be just six years old this Feb 29; imagine all the balloons and birthday cake they’ve missed over the years. But no doubt their parents have long congratulated themselves on producing an offspring on the 29th – they’ve saved serious money on gifts and parties!
***
WE read yesterday in another PNG newspaper of concerns expressed about the drug pseudo-ephedrine, for many years an ingredient in cold and flu medications available from the shelf at pharmacies. The drug is not the problem; it’s the use made of it in the production of methamphetamines such as the highly addictive “recreation” drug Ice that have caused drug companies to use another drug, phenylephrine, in its place.
***
IT is highly unlikely that sufficient quantities of pseudo-ephedrine to support even a small illegal drug industry could have been extracted by this method in PNG. Disproportionate sales of cold and flu products would have been obvious to any pharmacist and the method of extracting the drug is hardly the stuff of a primary school chemistry lesson.
***
BUT the most important point is that registered pharmacists removed products containing pseudo-ephedrine from their shelves at least six months ago; for example Sudafed, an excellent medication for combating sinus pain and Codral cold and flu tablets, both made originally with significant quantities of pseudo-ephedrine, now contain the substitute phenylephrine instead.
***
PROVINCIAL AIDS funds will top K2.5 million this year, up from K1.3m. Perhaps that’s good news. But what the silent sufferers of this disease want to see is proper use being made of these funds and an end to duplication; they want the often over- sophisticated programmes brought into sharp and practical focus and made accessible to all concerned.
***
AIDS is neither an exercise in semantics nor an opportunity for the power hungry. It’s a killer disease that claims PNG victims each day.
***

- Dee Nesenolis.