Okay, the SARS thing affected countries such as 
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, 
Canada (Toronto) as well as some parts of 
America. Asian countries are in pretty bad shape 
with the SARS thing. 

And from up-to-date news from what I received 
from the local broadcaster here in Singapore, 
there's currently no SARS infected patients in 
Japan. People are wearing masks in Japan because 
of the flower pollen powder being released by the 
woods during this season from March to April. 
These flower pollen powder can cause allergy to a 
large number of people, thus, they wear masks to 
protect themselves and not due to SARS.

It's a saddening news. Just like the virus comes 
all out to hit the entire human race all over the 
world with its intention to bring the population 
down.

Yes, it's true as stated by some on this forum 
that the virus cannot leave outside its host 
(human body) for 3 ~ 24 hours as reported. 

If it happens to be enveloped into an air-tight 
packaging, by the time the package flew all the 
way to the US by airmail, it would have been dead 
I guess. Unless it was some SUPER-FAST delivery, 
which I believe to fly all the way from 1 country 
to country would have take at least 1 day or more.

Or to have a peace of mind, the measures you can 
take is to air the package in an open-air 
environment. Constantly air your house, wash your 
hands and face, disinfect areas which you think 
has come in close contact with infected patients 
and stay out of the way when someone sneezes or 
coughs.

The virus also hit those that have a weak/low 
immune system. So, building up your immune system 
is also another way to prevent catching it. By 
taking vitamin C, cod liver's oil and I've read 
up some news that they mentioned 
taking "Vitagen/Yakult".