By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

Kim Sook-hee, a 28-year-old housewife, won't leave the house to purchase things for her expected baby. Nearly seven months into her pregnancy, Kim instead made up her mind to buy everything she and her husband need to rear their child ― due in December ― online.

"I wouldn't have cared less if it was just about myself," she said. "But after hearing pregnant women are prone to catch the new flu and it can affect my unborn child too, I am cautious about going out now."

Due to growing fear over influenza H1N1, which is spreading rapidly here, online shopping mall sales of children's products have been on the rise.

Major local online retailers reported sales surges, as more parents prefer to buy indoor toys and educational materials for their children, as well as products for child birth and care, as juveniles and expectant mothers are reportedly more vulnerable to the disease.

Lotte.com, one of the leading local online shopping malls, said Monday sales of sanitation goods for infants from Aug. 24 to Sept. 4 more than tripled from the previous year. Its August sales jumped nearly 43 percent from a year earlier, largely thanks to those items.

Increased orders of products such as wet tissue papers, anti-bacterial soaps and home thermometers, have caused the company to take more than a week to deliver the items to buyers, Lotte.com said.

Auction.com, the nation's second-largest cyber market, saw sales of indoor slides and play mats for children pick up steam throughout last week, with growth of 220-percent and 75-percent, respectively.

At GS Home Shopping, orders for storybooks have more than doubled year-on-year over the past three weeks.

Encouraged by the success, the company has decided to air more daily promotions for these products on its television channel.

Many South Koreans are panicking after the fourth death from the H1N1 flu virus was reported last week. A female patient in her 40s, who resided in the Seoul metropolitan area, was confirmed brain-dead last Friday, allegedly from complications of the disease.

Nearly 4,300 cases have been confirmed so far since the country reported its first one in early May.

Also last week, health officials here voiced concern that the influenza A may spread further this autumn with the beginning of the new semester in schools. Health and Welfare Minister Jeon Jae-hee said that October will be a critical point to examine the scale of the pandemic.

Last week, the government said it will vaccinate 10 million people against the virus this year. Full-scale vaccination will start in November, aimed at inoculating 27 percent of the nation's 48 million people by February next year.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr