For instance, as the principal state sanitary inspector Lyudmila Shteinke informed, hospitalization and treatment of each patient diseased with SARS costs 13,000 soms (about $300). Moreover, large sums of money are needed to carry out diagnosis research, purchase test systems, and for sanitary and anti-epidemic measures in markets of Bishkek and other cities.

On the other hand, as some economists predict, closing borders will negatively influence Kyrgyzstan\'s economy as a whole. China is one of the biggest trade partners of the Kyrgyz Republic. Annual trade turnover between the two countries is about 160 million dollars. Almost all of Kyrgyzstan\'s markets deal with Chinese goods, which are in demand among local people with low and average earnings, who make up the major part of the population.

Economic experts forecasted a significant rise in prices of Chinese goods in case the quarantine is delayed. So far, merchandise imported to Kyrgyzstan from neighboring states has already taken a jump of at least 10 percent. Osh regional customs specialists assume that, after closing the borders, the Kyrgyz state budget is to lose millions of soms.

However, the coordinator of the Kara-Suu market, the biggest Chinese goods wholesale and retail trade complex, Bazarbay Solpuev, is optimistic. \"Who said that, after closing the borders, trade here freezes? Merchants bring goods from other neighboring countries, Russian products are also in popular demand. Local producers, too, have much things to propose consumers,\" he said.

The Kara-Suu market is the place where about 550 Chinese merchants, mainly Uyghurs from Xinjiang, work. They stayed in Kyrgyzstan with their families, and went on trading. Kyrgyz businessmen intensified their economic connections with the Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Iran. The demand for European goods, which are popular among Kyrgyz elite, grew slightly.

Closing the border with China has not brought an appreciable financial damage to local tourist firms either. As some tourism managers admitted, very few people depart for China, like any other Southeast Asian countries. The decrease of demand for tickets to Thailand, Hong Kong, and Malaysia is caused by the SARS epidemic in those states and the season of abundant rains that have just started there.

However, Kyrgyz officials are worried that the SARS epidemic might also spoil the coming holiday season on Issyk-Kul lake. Rumors abound that several Kyrgyzstan citizens infected with SARS have already been put in the Republican infection hospital. However, the principal state sanitary inspector assures there has been no case of SARS registered in Kyrgyzstan, and she publicly refutes information about two SARS deaths in the country.

Nikolay Tanaev, Prime Minister, also denied reports of Kazakh and other foreign media about SARS diseased cases in Kyrgyzstan. He called it \"black propaganda directed to foiling the coming tourist season on Issyk-Kul lake\". \"Such information is favorable for those countries, where tourists traditionally come from, in terms of developing their own tourist business,\" Nikolay Tanaev stated.

Just recently, the frontier points \"Irkeshtam\" and \"Torugart\" were opened for exports and imports only, on the condition of strict medical control. This helps, in some ways, to mitigate the negative economic influence of the SARS epidemic from Beijing on Kyrgyzstan and to prevent its penetration into the country.