The crisis line telephone number for ethnic women is 0800 742584. For more visit www.shakti.org.nz Back to top
Developing Countries’ Access to Medications NZ (along with many other countries) is to accept an amendment to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules that will make it easier to export generic drugs to developing countries faced with public health problems, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. It means they will be able to import generic copies of patented drugs if they cannot manufacture the drugs themselves. The amendment deals with patent provisions in the WTO’s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, and has been in place on a temporary basis since 2003. Once NZ has made changes to its own patent laws it will become an “exporting member” and be able to issue compulsory licenses for the export of generic copies of patented pharmaceuticals to countries facing public health crises if it is asked to do to by those countries. The text of the Protocol is on the WTO website at www.wto.org Back to top
World Tuberculosis Declining New data, published in the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2011 Global Tuberculosis Control Report, shows that the number of people who fell ill with TB dropped to 8.8 million in 2010, after peaking at 9 million in 2005. The report also finds that TB deaths fell to 1.4 million in 2010, after reaching 1.8 million in 2003. At the same time, it states that current progress is at risk from under-funding, especially for efforts to combat multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), a form of the disease that fails to respond to standard drugs. For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news Back to top
Education/Training Is Your School Getting Fast Broadband? Chorus and Crown Fibre Holdings have released the list of urban schools included in its first year ultra-fast broadband (UFB) rollout. Some 90,000 students who attend 200 urban schools in the Auckland, Blenheim, Dunedin, Hastings, Masterton, Napier, Palmerston North, Porirua, Rotorua, Taupo, and Wellington areas will soon be connected to a UFB network that can deliver broadband speeds of at least 100Mbps. Plans for deploying UFB fibre connections to the remaining urban schools within the 24 candidate areas awarded to Chorus are still being developed. The list of urban schools, by region, can be viewed (as an Excel spreadsheet) at http://www.chorus.co.nz/f1269,67390/UFB_Schools.xls Back to top
Rural Women NZ, enquiries@ruralwomen.org.nz, 04 473 5524
Bulletin Aotearoa November 2011 - 22