Mask shortage? Taiwanese use bras

To protect themselves from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, residents of a Taiwan village have resorted to strapping bras to their faces due to a shortage of surgical masks.

SARS cases in Taiwan have tripled in number in the past two weeks, raising the demand for face masks. Taiwan now has 360 cases of SARS, the third highest in the world after China and Hong Kong.

The shops in the small village near the southern city of Tainan have run out of face masks to sell, so a small bra factory had its workers cut a bra in two and sew on extra straps, according to the British Broadcasting Corp. News.

"I went to every pharmacy in the village and it’s impossible to find a proper mask," said a middle-aged man, his face partially covered by a dark red bra cup. "Somebody came up with this idea so I decided to give it a try," he said.

Some people, taking the lead from bra-making factories, are making their own face masks from brassieres.

They are also buying up stocks of pure alcohol, mixing it with water to disinfect surfaces in a bid to kill the SARS virus.

Authorities fear SARS may have spread from Taipei in the north, to southern parts of the island. Tests are being done to determine if an elderly man in Kaohsiung died of SARS — if confirmed, he could be southern Taiwan’s first SARS case.