The woman who smuggled HIV into Bulgaria in her handbag
In the 1985 Bulgarian virologist Professor Radka Argirova smuggled a live HIV sample from Germany to her home. It meant testing was possible in Bulgaria for the first time.
In 1985, at the height of the Cold War, Bulgaria was a strictly controlled communist dictatorship.
It was also facing a wave of infection and death caused by a mysterious new virus. The authorities refused to recognise the threat of HIV and AIDS, so one of Bulgaria’s virologists took the initiative.
In this programme for World Aids Day, Professor Radka Argirova tells Janet Barrie how she smuggled the live HIV virus back from Germany to start testing in Bulgaria for the first time.
(Photo: Professor Radka Argirova in her laboratory. Credit: Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ)
Last on
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Thu 1 Dec 2022 08:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
- Thu 1 Dec 2022 12:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
- Thu 1 Dec 2022 18:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Thu 1 Dec 2022 23:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Fri 2 Dec 2022 00:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service South Asia
- Fri 2 Dec 2022 03:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except South Asia
Featured in...
![]()
Women in history—Witness History
Listen to and download our programmes
Podcast
-
![]()
Witness History
History as told by the people who were there
