Dark time in Singapore's recent history - koro pandemic!!!

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

I was under the impression that Singapore since WW2 had been a calm and orderly place, and that the worst thing that happened to this serene island was the Flood of 1969. Was talking to an uncle about how peaceful and calm things have been in Singapore when he told me I was wrong, and that in 1967, there was a koro epidemic!! And people were hysteric, and there was mass panic! Koro? What's koro? So I did a google check, and this was what I discovered - it was true, there was a koro pandemic here in Singapore. Here's a report about it:-

Cheers!


http://www.designntrend.com/articles...enis-panic.htm

All You Need To Know About Penis Panic, Koro Epidemics And Singapore In The 1960s

• Carrie Weisman , Design & Trend Contributor
• May, 06, 2014, 01:04 PM

• We've all heard of the term "mass hysteria." One idea penetrates an entire community and everyone goes nuts over it. But things get even weirder when people go nuts over penises - no pun intended.
• That's right, there is an official term given to mass hysteria about penises - shrinking penises to be exact. It's called a "Koro Epidemic" and it hit Singapore pretty hard in the fall of 1967.
• Koro refers to an individual's belief that his or her genitals are shrinking and will eventually disappear. The Singaporean men took it one step further and became convinced that the phenomena would eventually lead to their death.
• The hysteria first hit when a newspaper report came out that some individuals developed "Koro" from eating pork from pigs inoculated with anti-swine-fever vaccines. Rumors spread quickly, and panic swept over an entire community of men.
• At the height of the "outbreak," 97 men who believed they had been hit with Koro went to the emergency unit of the Singapore General Hospital in one day. It's reported that 454 men were seen over the course of the epidemic, with 98 percent of them being Chinese.
• One month later, the Singapore Medical Association and the Health Ministry made public announcements stating that Koro was an extension of fear, rather than an actual condition.
• Some men went so far as to wear wooden clamps or red strings around their penises, thinking it would prevent shrinkage. However, this only proved to damage the areas, and, as we would assume, had no effect to prevent shrinkage.
• Luckily for the men - and women - of Singapore, the panic soon dissipated, and normalcy soon resumed. But the story does perfectly demonstrate how susceptible people are, and how absurdity can find power in numbers.


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