East Baton Rouge Parish has confirmed 16 cases of the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, since the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals began tracking the virus statewide in April, according René Milligan, director of the Bureau of Media and Communications for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.But that number may be misleading.Frank Welch, medical director for pandemic preparedness at the DHH Office of Public Health, said it is likely there are more than 16 cases in the parish because the disease’s effects has been mild.”We stopped asking doctors and laboratories to submit those tests about a month ago,” Welch said. “There were probably many, many more than that of people who were just mildly ill and stayed home. So that 16 just represents the tip of the iceberg.”East Baton Rouge parish has the second most cases in Louisiana. Lafayette Parish leads the state with 60 cases, while Plaquemines is third with 13.The confirmed number of swine flu cases in Louisiana is 134, according to the DHH.Welch expects the H1N1 virus to travel to the Southern hemisphere for its winter season.”It’s a relatively mild disease, even though it’s a new variant of the flu,” he said. “Unless it goes away completely, we probably expect that this swine flu will return to us next fall — hopefully as a similarly mild disease as it has been so far.”Welch also said students should worry about the H1N1 virus as much as they would any typical flu.”No student wants to get the flu before a test or before exams or something like that. And then secondly, no student wants to spread the flu to someone who might be really, really sick or need to get to the hospital,” Welch said. “I would really recommend anyone getting a regular flu shot when that comes out in the fall, and if there is a flu shot for the swine flu to also get that. And then those basic prevention messages of wash your hands, cover your cough, if you’re sick stay at home and stay away from sick people.”No deaths have occurred in Louisiana because of swine flu. There have been 27 confirmed deaths nationally from the H1N1 virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site.Welch said he wants people to worry about the basic flu virus every year because of the number of people it kills annually.”Most people don’t realize that seasonal flu kills 34,000 Americans every single year,” Welch said. “I would treat this like the seasonal flu and take the steps to either prevent it or vaccinate yourself from it just as you would the seasonal flu.”—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]