Health News Roundup: Indonesia extends AstraZeneca vaccine shelf life as 6 million doses near expiry; Dutch to cull around 84,000 chickens after bird flu detected and more

The Food and Drug Administration's decision paves the way for Legend's first approved product in the United States, at a time when the regulator has stepped up its scrutiny of drug trials conducted in China.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Indonesia extends AstraZeneca vaccine shelf life as 6 million doses near expiry

Indonesia has extended the shelf life of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to nine months, as nearly six million doses it received in donations approached their expiration dates, a health ministry spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday. The decision underscores the challenges many developing countries face in their slow inoculation campaigns, as vaccines donated by wealthy countries arrive with a relatively short shelf life of just a few months or weeks.

Dutch to cull around 84,000 chickens after bird flu detected

Around 47,000 chickens on a farm in the eastern Dutch city of Wageningen will be culled after the detection of highly infectious bird flu, the government said on Tuesday. There was a similar report from the north of the country on Monday evening, leading authorities to order the culling of 37,000 chickens.

FDA approves CTI BioPharma's bone marrow cancer drug

CTI BioPharma Corp said on Monday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved its drug for treating adult patients with a type of bone marrow cancer who also have low blood platelet count. The drug, Vonjo (pacritinib), belongs to a class of anti-inflammatory treatments called JAK inhibitors, and will compete with Incyte Corp's Jakafi and Bristol Myers' Inrebic, which were approved in 2011 and 2019 respectively for treating Myelofibrosis.

Hong Kong residents empty supermarkets ahead of city-wide lockdown

Hong Kong residents braced for a city-wide lockdown, emptying supermarkets and pharmacies, even as leader Carrie Lam called for calm on Tuesday and appealed for the public not to worry over a compulsory mass COVID-19 testing plan. The Chinese-ruled territory reported 32,597 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday and a record 117 deaths in the past 24 hours. It has seen daily infections surge over 30 times from just over 100 at the start of February.

Bahrain approves Valneva's COVID vaccine for emergency use

Bahrain has granted emergency use authorisation to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by France's Valneva, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Valneva expects to deliver the first shipments of its VLA2001 vaccine to the kingdom at the end of March, after it signed an advance purchase deal for one million doses in December last year.

U.S. parents still divided over school COVID masking rules -survey

As public schools around the United States lift COVID-19 mask mandates, parents are divided over the issue, with nearly 43% saying face covering requirements should remain in place to prevent virus transmission, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). Most parents who responded also expressed concern about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for children under age 5, saying they do not have enough information, according to the KFF survey of 1,502 adults conducted between Feb. 9 and 21.

Pfizer's bacterial infection vaccine fails main goal in study

Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday its vaccine to prevent infections from a bacteria that mainly spreads through hospitals and doctors' offices and can even prove fatal, failed to meet the main goal of a late-stage study. There are no vaccines yet to prevent the illness caused by Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) bacterium, which has been classified as an urgent public health threat by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Red Cross seeks funds for Ukraine aid, access to detainees

Red Cross agencies appealed on Tuesday for 250 million Swiss francs ($273 million) to provide food, water and shelter to millions of people in Ukraine where the humanitarian situation is "deteriorating rapidly" and to those who have fled abroad. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - the world's largest disaster relief network - issued the joint appeal as a huge Russian armoured column bore down on Kyiv, six days after Moscow's invasion began.

Fears of medical shortages and disease in Ukraine after Russian invasion

Ukraine is running low on critical medical supplies and has had to halt urgent efforts to curb a polio outbreak since Russia invaded the country, public health experts say. Medical needs are already acute, with the World Health Organization warning on Sunday that oxygen supplies were running out.

FDA approves cancer therapy by J&J, partner Legend Biotech

The U.S. health regulator has approved a therapy developed by Johnson & Johnson and its China-focused partner Legend Biotech Corp to treat a type of white blood cell cancer, the U.S. healthcare company said on Monday. The Food and Drug Administration's decision paves the way for Legend's first approved product in the United States, at a time when the regulator has stepped up its scrutiny of drug trials conducted in China. The Legend-J&J therapy was tested initially in China, and then in the United States and Japan.

(With inputs from agencies.)