Amid reports of an international swine flu outbreak, Boston University students should practice safe health habits but avoid unnecessary worry, BU Student Health Services Director David McBride said Monday in an email.

‘Students should be intentional about washing their hands regularly, avoiding touching their faces, coughing into a tissue if ill with respiratory symptoms and should present to medical care if their symptoms are more severe,’ he said. ‘Beyond that, I don’t believe worrying is appropriate.’

The latest outbreak of swine flu has similar symptoms as the seasonal flu, but there is no vaccine against it, McBride said.

In Mexico, the death toll from the flu reached 152 at press time, with nearly 2,000 infected, according to The Associated Press. Testing at a New York City school where students were infected caused the number of U.S. cases to climb to 40, with outbreaks reported in California, Kansas, Ohio and Texas. Internationally, 73 cases were reported on Monday, including six in Canada.

All the cases in the U.S. have been relatively mild, with only one hospitalization possibly due to an unrelated illness, McBride said. Though no hospitals have reported cases of swine flu in Boston, BU is ‘actively monitoring’ the outbreak.

‘We have engaged in several simulated exercises to think about our approach, should a disease outbreak occur,’ McBride said. ‘Boston University works very cooperatively with the state and local health authorities to ensure we are up to date with information about situations such as this.’

In contrast with images of Mexicans wearing face masks to protect themselves from local outbreaks, BU students said they are not too concerned about contracting the virus.

‘I have plans to travel to Spain and Britain this summer,’ College of Arts and Sciences freshman Elise Roth said. ‘I’m still going. The British are good at dealing with pandemics.’

Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore Abdullah Al-Mutairi said he is not nervous the flu will spread to Boston.

‘People always overreact to these things,’ he said.