Myanmar mask prices soar after first swine flu case
Jul 1st, 2009
YANGON (AFP) – Prices for scarce surgical masks in impoverished Myanmar have soared more than threefold after the military-ruled nation confirmed its first case of swine flu, residents said Tuesday. Myanmar’s tightly-controlled state media said on Saturday that a 13-year-old girl from the commercial hub Yangon had tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus on her return from Singapore.
“I went to many pharmacies to buy surgical masks because my office wanted to use them to prevent swine flu. But they said they had run out,” Yangon worker Moe Moe, 28, told AFP.
“I finally found them at a pharmacy downtown but the price is really high – it has gone from 60 kyats (five cents) to 200 kyats (18 cents). I bought some because I was worried I might not be able to buy them later.”
State media have urged people to wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus in crowded places and on public transport but few people are doing so, largely because of the price, witnesses said.
At Yangon People’s Hospital, prices had also increased by three times because of the shortage.
“My child has to wear a mask at their school starting from today. He cried and said he would not go to school if he did not have one,” the father of a five-year-old boy said at the hospital, asking not to be named.
People living on the outskirts of the city said paying so much was out of the question.
“Where can I get the money to buy these masks every day? I cannot afford it, I have to worry about my family’s daily expenses first,” said Maung Zaw, 35.