I haven't heard of any kids under 14 or so that have SARS so it would make sense that SARS is an STD, but I don't know for sure. Pardon my potential, if not cemented, ignorance.
April 21 2003 at 01:57PM
By Jason Szep
Singapore - Singaporeans faced a shortage of fresh vegetables on Monday after a SARS outbreak forced health authorities to shut the nation's biggest wholesale vegetable market and quarantine all of its 2 400 workers.
Stocks at food stalls ran low and prices of some popular vegetables had doubled two days after the government announced a 10-day closure of the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market, the source of 70 percent of Singapore's vegetables.
The 24-hour market was shut late on Saturday after three workers there contracted the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus, posing the first real challenge to the government's strategy of confining SARS to hospitals.
'I would say 80 percent of my suppliers have been affected' "I would say 80 percent of my suppliers have been affected," said Goh Loon, a 42-year-old food seller at a stall run by his family for more than 30 years in Singapore's Holland Village.
"There's nowhere to get supply. I have never seen anything like this," said Goh, pointing to nearly empty boxes of bean sprouts and eggplants at his stall.
Singaporeans eat about 1 000 tons of vegetables a day, with about 30 percent bought in supermarkets and the rest at Pasir Panjang, which supplies hundreds of small, family-run food stalls such as Goh's in densely packed neighbourhood food markets.
Shutting down Pasir Panjang is part of an aggressive strategy by Singapore authorities to "isolate and contain" SARS following 178 confirmed cases in the city-state, the world's fourth highest number, and 14 deaths including one worker from Pasir Panjang.
The government said it was working with supermarkets to replenish stocks by increasing direct imports from Australia, New Zealand and the United States, but concedes that Singapore faces a "significant disruption of vegetable supply" until April 29.
State-run grocer NTUC FairPrice, which directly imports 90 percent of its vegetables and fruit, said it was confident it had enough stocks to meet demand over the next few days and had tripled its orders for leafy vegetables.
Shops have reported scenes of panic buying, including cabbages bought in multiple basketloads and runs on popular vegetables such as "chai sin" and "gai lan" used in stir fry dishes.
Goh said some of the prices at his stall had doubled, and media reports said "chai sin" sold at SIN$3 (about R14) a kg in some stalls compared with the usual SIN$2,50.
Minister of Health Lim Hng Kiang urged retailers to avoid price mark ups, and NTUC FairPrice said its prices would remain stable during the 10-day shutdown of Pasir Panjang.
Lim also said residents had an excuse for the next 10 days to "skip their greens".
"You can make up for it after the 10 days," he told a news conference late on Sunday.
Pasir Panjang's closure also affects farmers in neighbouring Malaysia, who supply 45 percent of all Singapore's imported vegetables - most of it destined for Pasir Panjang on flatbed trucks driven over a narrow causeway between the countries.
Authorities also said Malaysian vegetable-truck drivers who had recently made runs to Pasir Panjang would not be allowed back into Singapore for 10 days.
Malaysian drivers bound for Singapore's supermarkets must have their temperature taken and fill in declarations saying they did not go to Pasir Panjang between April 5 and April 19.