More people in Aotearoa will soon be able to donate blood after the country's medicine regulator approved a change to the donation criteria.
People who had lived in the United Kingdom, France or the Republic of Ireland between January 1, 1980 and December 31, 1996, for a total period of six months or more, were previously barred from donating blood or plasma due to fears of mad cow disease.
During that time, the UK was in the grips of a bovine spongiform encephalopathy and its human equivalent variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) outbreak. VCJD is an incredibly rare and fatal degenerative brain disorder.
At the time more than four million cattle were slaughtered in an effort to contain the outbreak and 178 people died after contracting vCJD through eating infected beef.
British beef was banned from export to numerous countries with some only lifting restrictions as late as 2019.
In August the New Zealand Blood Service made a submission to Medsafe recommending the 'mad cow' disease restriction be removed.
"We're delighted to advise Medsafe have approved our submission. This means we can now get underway with updating our systems and processes and prepare our teams to support this change," NZ Blood Service said.
The service called the move "bloody good news" and encouraged people who had previously been banned to donate.
"If you have been affected by this restriction you can pre-register your interest online to give blood or plasma, so we can contact you to let you know when you can book."
It comes after New Zealand Blood Service revealed earlier in the year it's reviewing its policy which bans gay men from donating blood unless they've abstained from sex for three months.
Activists have been on a long journey to scrap the ban which has already been ditched in many other countries.
The policy was initially created to prevent the risk of spreading HIV. But the prevalence of the virus since then has changed dramatically.
Similar donation bans have been scrapped in England, Wales, Scotland and Canada - with the United States pledging to do the same. But not in New Zealand.
In April last year, the Blood Service announced a study to collect local HIV data to help it review the policy.
There are several other restrictions for donating blood in Aotearoa including age, weight, previous intravenous drug use and recent tattoos or piercings.
