Swine Flu Causes Surge Of Garlic Sales In Serbia

DUSAN STOJANOVIC

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Belgrade's open-air markets were a welter of busy customers on Friday, 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 recently has spread in Serbia and triggered near panic among the local population.

That is now evident in Belgrade's produce markets, where the price of garlic has shot up, thanks to a sudden increase in demand. The smell of the little white cloves also has become prevalent in public places as people munch on them as if eating apples.

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 eventually getting vaccinated.

But those calls seem to have been in vain.

"Garlic is the best, forget the vaccines," said Marko Jankovic, an elderly Belgrader, with the pungent smell of garlic obvious as he spoke at the crowded Kaleniceva Pijaca market. "From the vaccine, you can get sick. From garlic, you can only get bad breath."