Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome [SARS] is a nasty little virus from somewhere in southern China. Thanks to modern means of travel, this vicious bug has spread across the globe and killed scores of people. Thanks to planning and government spending the disease looks containable and treatable within the US and Europe.
One scientist described a virus as a packet of bad news wrapped in a protein, and the SARS virus is no different. While it is not as lethal as Ebola, Marburg or other hemorragic fevers, it does have lethal effects in about 3-5% of those infected. Since it is transmitted in droplets from a sneeze or similar exhalation, it is more easily spread than AIDS.
What one hasn't seen in the US is surgical masks such as those seen in Hong Kong and other parts of the Orient. It could be a case of American unpreparedness, but the Center for Disease Control and the State Department have worked to ensure that the germ stays out of mainstream America as much as possible. While one airplane was held for a time on the west coast, few travelers are coming into contact with the bug except in China.
There are SARS deaths in the developed world, especially Canada, but no uncontrolled outbreak. While part of that is the way the germ is spread, the ability of US authorities to keep infected persons out of the US and to separate those with the disease from the general population explains the rest.