Vitamin C hit due to swine flu scare

As I roamed around the fruit stands in the province of Davao del Sur , I found out tha sales of fruits, especially those touted to have high Vitamin C content, have gone up due to the Influenza A(H1N1) scare in Davao del Sur province.
Dionesia Meparanong, a fruit vendor in Bansalan town, said on Friday that mangoes, pomelos and citrus fruits have been selling briskly these days compared to before the A(H1N1) scare broke.

"People believe that eating more fruits with high Vitamin C content could help them prevent the flu and other diseases," Meparanong said in Cebuano.





But it has been noted that some fruit vendors implemented the increased after they found an increasing demand of supply.

For example, a kilo of mango now sells P40-50 per kilo, up from P30-35 last month.
When asked about this, Meparanong said vendors could only do so much because suppliers also increased their price due to limited supply.





I remember when I have a talked with Doctor Edwin Mayor, head of the provincial health office's A(H1N1) task force, said while Vitamin C could increase one's resistance to diseases, increasing water intake and a good night’s sleep would be other ways to avoid illnesses.





Mayor told me they appealed anew to residents not to panic over the A(H1N1) flu.
"A (H1N1) cases in the Philippines are only mild and are curable even by self-quarantine only. Compare that to dengue, which already claimed two lives in Digos City alone this year," he said.