Israel’s Health Ministry on Sunday ended a 24-year ban on blood donations from many UK immigrants.

In 1999, Israel’s Health Ministry ordered a ban on blood donations from anyone who lived in the UK for over six months between 1980 and 1996 due to fears of Mad Cow Disease. A similar ban was later implemented on anyone who had resided in France, Ireland and Portugal.

The ban was implemented after 178 people in the UK died after eating beef infected with Mad Cow Disease.

According to a statement by Magen David Adom, which operates Israel’s national blood bank, the Health Ministry adopted the US Federal Drug Administration’s new directives on blood donations from people who had lived in the UK.

The FDA made a decision last year to remove the ban since the risk is now “negligible.” The decision was based on data from the UK showing that the risk of contraction of Mad Cow Disease from blood donations is only one or two cases every 50 years.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)