WSU President Elson S. Floyd said the way that some universities around the country report the flu may be causing them to “underestimate the number of cases” in an e-mail sent to WSU alumni and friends on Wednesday.

“So the numbers alone don’t tell us much,” Floyd said. “Other universities may be using reporting systems that only include positive influenza tests.” Floyd urged people not to overreact to the reports of the H1N1 outbreak at WSU.

“When Health and Wellness Services reported having had more than 2,000 phone and in-person contacts with students complaining of flu-like symptoms, that became, in the journalistic shorthand of some news outlets, ‘More than 2,000 sick with swine flu at WSU,’” Floyd wrote.

In the e-mail, Floyd said that the symptoms of this flu have been mild, and in most accounts, milder than the usual cases of seasonal flu. He also said because WSU starts classes so early, the university has become a test case, not just for the medical response to the flu outbreak, but for the media response as well.

“Much of that coverage has been measured and complete,” Floyd wrote, “Other reports have only told part of the story.” Paula Adams, spokeswoman for Health and Wellness Services, said that people’s concern with the H1N1 outbreak probably stemmed from the avian flu outbreak a few years back and that strain’s potential danger to the population.

“If avian flu had gotten to the point where it could sustain human-to-human contact, it would have been nasty,” Adams said.

She said that when the H1N1 outbreak first occurred, people didn’t know how severe it would be, so many officials braced for the worst and closed schools. She said that though H1N1 spreads more easily than the avian flu, the danger to the population is less serious.

“In its current form, it’s not that virulent,” Adams said, “It’s not killing.” Tim Church, spokesman for the state Department of Health, said the H1N1 outbreak statewide could get worse, and state officials have an H1N1 vaccine on order to be delivered by October. But Church said the state won’t have enough vaccine to inoculate everyone, so the focus will be on vaccinating people who have the greatest risk of contracting the virus.

Church said the flu, any strain of it, is dangerous and spreads easily and rapidly among people.

“Around this country, it’s estimated that every year about 36,000 people die from the seasonal flu,” Church said.

He said the difference between H1N1 and the seasonal flu is that it’s a strain people haven’t seen in a while, so many young people haven’t built up an immunity to it. He said that older adults may have been exposed to this strain years ago, and therefore, aren’t as susceptible.

He also said that once the flu is in a community, there’s little you can do to stop it, but that officials at WSU are handling the outbreak well. However, he stressed that people should take all the necessary precautions.

“Wash your hands more often than you do,” Church said, “(And) don’t be a trooper ... you really should stay home. The person next to you in class will be very happy if you don’t show up and sneeze and cough all over them.”