DIGOS CITY, Philippines -- 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 along with the brisk sales, the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) noted that prices of many fruits were up too.

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.

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 also 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.

In Zamboanga City, Father Antonio Moreno, president of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, said he declared a 10-day suspension of classes in the pre-school and primary levels effective Friday after the Department of Health in Western Mindanao found out that 166 children were exhibiting flu-like symptoms.

"We can't really determine if that's seasonal flu or related to A(H1N1). So just to make sure, we decided to call off classes for 10 days, the kids can return back to school on July 13," Moreno said.

The school was earlier put under close observation by health officials after it was confirmed that a nine-year old boy studying there had contacted the virus.

The boy has recovered, according to Dr. Aristedes Tan, Department of Health director for Western Mindanao.

Tan said personnel of the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU) "are now validating the flu like cases in Ateneo."

While classes are suspended, Ateneo school officials will "sanitize" the classrooms and conduct continuing education-information campaign among the university's students and parents, Moreno said.