Author: Jordan Evans
Evans, Jordan, 2024 New Blood: The League of Red Cross Societies’ Blood Transfusion Programme, 1946–1979, Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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The transfusion of blood is one of the major medical developments of the twentieth century. This thesis examines the little-known narrative of the evolution of the League of Red Cross Societies’ blood transfusion programme from 1946 to 1979. It argues that bodies and individuals within the League, such as the Medico-Social Bureau and the Working Group of Blood Transfusion Experts, significantly influenced the broader global blood transfusion field during this period. This was accomplished through enhancing the abilities of member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ blood transfusion services by providing equipment, resources, staffing, training, and funding. The League also helped to shape the conduct of National Societies through publicity and education to build support for blood transfusion and align them with the League’s principles, in particular voluntary blood donation.
This thesis also investigates why the League and National Societies viewed blood transfusion as an attractive, productive, and important endeavour. Firstly, it argues that blood transfusion integrated effectively with the Red Cross ideals of charity and volunteerism. Secondly, blood transfusion provided National Societies and the League with an avenue for activity and purpose following the conclusion of the Second World War. Thirdly, an absence of international organisations operating in the field afforded the League a relatively uncontested space to establish and grow its presence and influence. Using a range of rarely accessed archival sources, this thesis sheds new light on the growth of global blood transfusion and argues that this vital medical transformation would be noticeably different today without the intervention and effort of the League of Red Cross Societies and its member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Keywords: Blood, Blood transfusion, Red Cross, League of Red Cross Societies’, IFRC, Medicine, Decolonisation, Public Health, Humanitarianism, Plasma, Africa, Asia,
Subject: History thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2024
School: College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Supervisor: Susanne Schech