BELGRADE - Belgrade’s open-air markets were a welter of busy customers yesterday, pushing and shoving to buy one item - garlic.
In Serbia, garlic has long been regarded as a good luck charm and a guard against many ailments. As far as the public is concerned, that includes the swine flu pandemic, which has spread recently in Serbia and triggered near panic.
That is now evident in Belgrade’s produce markets, where the price of garlic has shot up because of the demand.
Health officials have publicly urged the population not to take garlic’s healing properties so seriously. Instead, they recommend opting for more conventional precautions, such as washing hands, wearing face masks, or being vaccinated.
Facing a surge of swine flu cases, Serbia’s Health Ministry yesterday ordered 3 million vaccines from Novartis AG, a Swiss pharmaceutical company.
The authorities said Serbia has about 270 proven swine flu cases and eight deaths - up from about 130 cases and two deaths at the beginning of November.