Australian health authorities lifted a ban that had been in place since 2000 on blood donors living in the UK between 1980 and 1996, to prevent the spread of mad cow disease.
The Lifeblood Blood Collection and Distribution Agency has opened its doors to a new group of donors, who for the last two decades have been unable to donate blood in Australia.
Anyone who lived in the UK for six months or more during the 'mad cow disease' outbreak between 1980 and 1996 was barred from giving blood, due to the possible risk of transmission from the human variant known as V-C-J-D.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration will change the rules to allow people to donate blood.
The rules were changed after research found the risk of transmitting V-C-J-D was very small - about one in 1.4 billion. The change affected about 700,000 people.
Lifeblood hopes to generate 18,000 new donors who make an additional 58,000 donations per year. And hopefully this is not the last change to come in terms of blood donation rules.
