Medical Humanities - Health Studies Program

Current Projects & Research

Historical and Anthropological Approaches to Transfusion Safety in Africa: Donation, Medical (Mis)Use, Public Policy and Organizational Models in Cameroon and Uganda

This pilot project by the French National AIDS Research Agency aims to improve the safety of blood transfusion by examining historical and anthropological dimensions of blood transfusion in Cameroon and Uganda using an international and interdisciplinary team of experts in medical history and anthropology, as well as transfusion practitioners and experts in transfusion safety. The team will conduct an observational ethnographic study of two university teaching hospitals in Yaoundé and Kampala to observe best practices of blood transfusion, as well as study records of blood banks and major services since 1945. The following assumptions underlying the judgments of success and failure presumed by most official policies will be tested: 1) the question of centralization v/s decentralization in the evolution of transfusion systems since the colonial period; 2) the question of response to transfusion risk before and after the beginning of the AIDS crisis; 3) the question of "best clinical use" of blood transfusion; and 4) the question of the anthropology of blood donation, its significance as a reflection of citizenship in medical and political terms.

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Contact Information
Medical Humanities - Health Studies Program
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
425 University Boulevard, Cavanaugh Hall Room 406
Indianapolis, IN 46202-5140
(317) 274-4740

Medical Humanities - Health Studies Program

IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI IU School of Medicine

Current Projects & Research

IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI
IU School of Medicine