Singapore, May 1 (Bloomberg) -- SARS: Indians are immune to it, while a pork-free diet, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and chain smoking cigarettes help keep it at bay.

At least, that's what Singapore's rumor-mongers would have us believe about severe acute respiratory syndrome, the disease that's killed at least 370 people and infected more than 5,660 worldwide.

In Singapore, which has shut schools and quarantined more than 4,000 people to contain the disease, the government takes such talk seriously. So much so that Lee Hsien Loong, son of Singapore's founding father as well as the island nation's Deputy Prime Minister, came out in person to quash the myths today.

``No racial group is immune,'' Lee said in his annual May Day rally speech. ``Let me try to kill off three more rumors: abstaining from pork will not increase your immunity. Although alcohol kills viruses, drinking alcohol will not prevent SARS. And I hear that some people think smoking wards off SARS.''

Singapore would punish such loose talk, he said, warning those spreading rumors they face jail terms of as long as three years. Police caught one person responsible for spreading a rumor about a SARS outbreak at a shopping center in the West of the island, he said.

Lee warned that such rumors were highly contagious, spreading through SMS messages that Singaporeans love to send on their mobile phones. Singapore has one of the higher mobile phone penetration rates in the world, with 75 percent of the 4 million people owning a handset.

`Crisis of Fear'

Lee also pointed out that about 10 percent of probable SARS cases, or about 20 patients in Singapore, are Indians, while the racial profile of the other victims matched that of the nation.

The death toll in Singapore, an island about the size of Chicago, is 25, the third-highest number of fatalities after China and Hong Kong. The latest victim, a 25-year-old male Filipino nurse, died yesterday.

SARS had created a ``crisis of fear'' for Singaporeans and visitors, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said last month.

Aside from disrupting businesses and social life, the disease has kept would-be travelers at home, forcing Asian airlines to slash 650 weekly flights in April.

Tourism accounts for about 10 percent of the city's economy, according to analysts. Two weeks ago, the government cut its economic growth forecast to between 0.5 percent and 2.5 percent, from an earlier estimate that its $88 billion economy would expand 2 percent to 5 percent.

Last Updated: May 1, 2003 07:29 EDT