SCIENCE: Ebola could never spread widely here. Could it? “The ability of affected nations to isolate patients will also depend on equipment being available. The 2003 SARS epidemic was quelled with the same approach: isolate primary cases, quarantine their contacts and isolate those that become sick. There were just over 8000 cases of SARS worldwide, and by the end global supplies of surgical masks were exhausted. Toronto was one of the cities most seriously affected and struggled to control the virus. “We couldn’t have handled another Toronto,” says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.”