Meanwhile, on Friday, the WHO announced it could take several years before the organization could downgrade the H1N1 classification "from a pandemic to seasonal-like virus," Reuters reports in a separate story. "Eventually a pandemic virus becomes more like a seasonal virus and that normally will take something like two to three years," WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl said. "Once enough people either have been vaccinated or have contracted the virus, then it becomes more difficult to spread. It starts acting like a seasonal flu." Hartl warned there was no sign the virus had started to slow down (MacInnis, 10/9).

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