New Zealand’s Medsafe Approves Individual Donor Assessment
February 04, 2025
Medsafe, New Zealand’s medical regulatory body, recently
approved an application by the New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) to introduce individual donor assessment (IDA) to determine blood and plasma donor eligibility.
IDA is a donor eligibility process that asks the same questions of every donor—regardless of gender, sex or sexual orientation—when assessing potential risk for sexually transmitted infections, while maintaining the highest level of blood safety.
NZBS anticipates implementing IDA in early 2026 after updating its testing protocols to align with global best practices.
The NZBS application followed a 2024 report from the
Sex and Prevention of Transmission Study (SPOTS), which suggested that adopting IDA in New Zealand could significantly increase the number of eligible donors among gay and bisexual men without compromising blood safety.
Additional information about IDA in New Zealand is available on the
NZBS website.
