Prevention of bacterial contamination of transfused blood products: a 5-day workshop took place in DR Congo

Since 2018, the National Blood Transfusion Centre (CNTS), the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) and the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp have collaborated to study bacterial contamination of blood products intended for transfusion in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): prevalence, risk analysis and prevention^1-4. In December 2023,  results were reported in a PhD thesis by Anne-Sophie Heroes. The results showed a bacterial contamination rate of 1.4% in blood bags and demonstrated there is room for improvement in reducing bacterial contamination in the studied blood banks, by implementing affordable and technically feasible practices, accompanied by practical training for blood bank staff. Within this framework, a 5-day training workshop (9–13 March 2026) was organized, to strengthen the capacity of blood bank staff involved in blood product quality.

The workshop targeted clinicians, medical biologists, nurses and laboratory technicians responsible for management (general management or quality management) and/or blood collection in a blood bank affiliated with the National Blood Transfusion Programme in the DRC.  The workshop brought together 29 healthcare workers from the CNTS, CPTS (Provincial blood transfusion centres) and hospital facilities in Kinshasa, Kikwit and Kongo Central.

The 5-day face-to-face training workshop was organised at CNTS in Kinshasa with funding support from International Society for Blood Transfusion (ISBT) Academy (https://www.isbtweb.org/isbt-academy-support.html), Directorate General Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD, FA5 clinical bacteriology in DRC) and DGD ALLIANCE. The workshop combined seminars using a participatory approach, practical sessions and group work. See detailed workshop program in the annexes.

Facilitators were affiliated with INRB (Prof Octavie Lunguya and Edmonde Bonebe), ITM (Anne-Sophie Heroes), Clinical Research Unit Nanoro, Burkina Faso (CRUN, Palpouguini Lompo) or CNTS.

All workshop materials were in French and were shared with the participants through a digital Moodle platform. A Whatsapp group was created, uniting participants and facilitators.

After participation in the workshop, participants were expected to be able:

• To explain the importance of preventing bacterial contamination of blood products
• To investigate and identify risk factors for bacterial contamination in the participants’ blood banks
• To select and plan interventions to reduce bacterial contamination of blood products in blood banks during:
  1. Medical screening of blood donors
  2. Blood collection
  3. The preparation and storage of blood products
  4. Distribution to hospitals
  5. Transfusion and haemovigilance
• To report and explain the key messages from each workshop session the staff at the participants’ blood bank.

References

1. Ahmad Y, Heroes A, Hume H, Farouk M, Owusu-Ofori A, Gehrie EA et al. Bacterial contamination of blood products in Africa. 2021; 61(3): 767-780.
2. Heroes A, Okitale P, Ndalingosu N, Vandekerckhove P, Lunguya O, Jacobs J. Presence of Gram-negative bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus on the skin of blood donors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 2023; 63(2): 360-372.
3. Heroes A, Kabamba P, Luyindula A, Bongenya B, Nzazi P, Nasali M et al. Knowledge, attitude and practice survey of bacterial contamination of blood for transfusion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Blood Transfus. 2024; 22(3): 213-225.
4. Heroes A, Ndalingosu N, Kalema J, Luyindula A, Kashitu D, Akele C et al. Bacterial contamination of blood products for transfusion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: temperature monitoring, qualitative and semi-quantitative culture. Blood Transfus. 2020; 18(5): 348-358.

Photo 1: Participants and facilitators in front of the CNTS buidling

Photo 2: Participants practising hand hygiene according to the WHO procedure (Cléophas Kalala and Stéphane Mulumba)

Photo 3: Hand hygiene check in a UV light box

Photo 4: Two participants (Florence Mutala and Dénise Mulapi) carrying out preparatory calculations for the preparation of bleach solutions.

Photo 5: Visit to the blood product preparation room at the CNTS (Jean-Baptiste Bigubaguba and Faila Mado)

Photo 6: Edmonde Bonebe demonstrates correct maintenance cleaning steps of mobile handwash stations

Photo 7: Palpouguini Lompo demonstrates how to adequately reprocess containers used for soap and disinfectants

Biosafety

Blood collection

Blood transfusion

Bloodstream infection

Sampling

Sub-Saharan Africa