Australians are being urged to commit to donating their skin - to help build up tissue supplies which are expected to be wiped out by the New Zealand volcano eruption.
Victoria and NSW tissue banks have sent 20,000 square centimetres of skin to New Zealand hospitals, which has been used to treat the most severely injured in the disaster.
Head of Victoria's Donor Tissue Bank Stefan Poniatowski said using skin from donors is a last resort.
"The ideal treatment for burns victims is to use their own skin, so you take from a healthy site to transplant onto a wounded site," Dr Poniatowski said.
Australia has sent 20,000 square centimetres to New Zealand to treat victims of the volcano eruption. Source: Supplied
"But if you have major burns over significant parts of your body, more than 50 per cent burns for example, you can't do that because you simply don't have enough of your own skin."
If the burn site is infected, it may also be too risky to carry out a skin graft.
"So in those cases it's undoubtedly life-saving," he said.
After Monday's eruption on White Island, 31 people were taken to burns units across New Zealand, most suffering from burns to more than 30 per cent of their bodies.
Since then, eight people have died in hospital including six Australians.
Tourists snap photos of the erupting volcano as their boat leaves the immediate area. Source: EPA
New Zealand has ordered 1.2 million square centimetres of skin from the United States but requested Australia's help on Tuesday as patients could not afford to wait until it arrives later this week.
Victoria's Donor Tissue Bank has another 12,000 square centimetres left in its stocks, much of which is expected to be needed to treat Australians being repatriated from New Zealand.
The Royal Australian Air Force has with another seven to be repatriated later on Thursday or Friday.
Dr Poniatowski said their treatment would stretch its stocks, particularly in the middle of bushfire season.
"It's a significant amount for us. Unfortunately, we never have enough skin in order to meet the needs for burns patients.
"It's difficult running into what's clearly proving to be a bad bushfire season knowing that we're already running low on stocks because of this incident."
He expected it would take several months to build up its stocks again.
He urged people to commit to making the life-saving decision to donate their skin after their death and to share their wishes with their loved ones.
"Where they've discussed that they would like to donate after they have died, then certainly that conversation is much easier and we can proceed with tissue donation much more easily."
While some people may fear being stripped of their skin, the procedure involves taking only a thin layer from sections of the body, "somewhat like the skin that peels in sunburn", Donate Life explains.
