Paper short abstract:

Viral and bacterial infections transmitted by blood have initiated deep changes in terms of legislation, discourse and practices in transfusion medicine. Microbes have a key-role in the difficulty between imperatives of providing sufficient blood and providing a safe blood for patients.

Paper long abstract:

In a context where blood is a powerful therapeutic means as well as a vector of diseases, the Belgian Red Cross, a monopoly body mandated by the State, has to ensure the best quality of blood products. The contaminated blood scandal (1980s) still impact transfusion practices today : the Red Cross has implemented a drastic blood donor filter system in order to minimize risks of infection for the recipient. Indeed, transfusion establishes a connection between a donor and a patient, to whom bacteria, viruses or parasites should not be given.

Specific blood compounds or certain types of blood are more sought after by the Red Cross, for example, donors from sub-saharan Africa, because of their particular phenotypic characteristics relevant for transfusion medicine. However, depending on travel destinations or native country, the risk of having been in contact with certain pathogens exclude the donor from blood donation. In this communication, I will talk about the challenge of managing these risks and of confining some types of microbes with which donors live, so that it cannot reach -through blood- people in vulnerable health. I will present some ethnographic materials of my research about blood donation and donors from sub-saharan Africa in Wallonia (Belgium) in order to discuss how microbes, these tiny invisible entities, can have massive repercussions going from nurse's contact with a donnor to a health organization.