Taiwan Village Residents Use Bras as Doctors' Masks

Local residents of a village in the South of Taiwan invented a new way to protect themselves from SARS virus. Doctors' masks are very hard to find there, so people use bras instead.

It is not ruled out that a thick bra that is used as a respiratory mask is a better protection than a common mask. In addition to that, one bra makes two masks, which is a very good advantage. Until recently, village residents made masks with their own hands, although an underwear factory recently started the production of bra-masks too. They cut bras into two and fix ties to cups.

A local resident complained that he could not find a mask in any drug stores in the neighborhood. The man's face was covered with a red cup of a bra.

As it is expected, other Taiwan provinces are going to use the experience of their country-fellows, because the panic about the SARS virus still grows. For the time being, the number of SARS-infected people in Taiwan makes up 360 individuals. Thus, Taiwan takes the third place in the world after China and Hong Kong amid the countries that have been attacked with the respiratory virus.