Two new cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Ohio, one in Holmes County and one in Portage County, the Ohio Department of Health said this morning.

The cases, both in 39-year-old women, bring the total number of confirmed cases in Ohio to five, including two in Franklin County and one in Lorain County.

A confirmed case means tests have shown the person has the H1N1 flu virus. The first confirmed case in Ohio was that of a 9-year-old boy in Elyria. He's recovering at home, and his school was closed this past week

Holmes County health officials said that the woman whose case was confirmed early this morning has recovered and that no one she contacted has shown any symptoms. The woman in Portage County has also recovered and had been isolated, officials there said. No one she contacted has shown signs of the disease.

There are two probable cases. Ohio officials have been waiting on word from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about an 18-year-old freshman male at Ohio State University.

The student, who lives in Stradley Hall on campus, has been isolated.

This morning, state health officials said a 30-year-old man in Butler County has been listed as a probable case.

Probable cases are those where people have symptoms, likely had contact with the virus and tested negative for seasonal flu.

State health officials this morning reported three suspected swine flu cases in Fairfield County, two each in Delaware and Licking counties and one in Union County.

There are 35 suspected cases statewide. Suspected cases are those where the person has symptoms and may have had contact with swine flu virus. A total of 134 suspected cases have dismissed.

President Barack Obama voiced hope Friday that the swine flu virus will run its course "like ordinary flus" as the government reported more than two dozen new cases and Continental Airlines curtailed flights into more heavily ravaged Mexico.

"I'm optimistic that we're going to be able to manage this effectively," Obama told reporters as got an update from his Cabinet on the federal response to the health emergency. At the same time, he emphasized that the federal establishment is preparing as if the worst is still to come so it won't get caught flat-footed.

Obama's fresh take on the flu scare — more intense in neighboring Mexico than in the United States but also present in some measure around the globe — came as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the virus has been confirmed in eight more states.

Confirmed cases have risen from 109 to 141, the CDC said, and it said the flu now is in 19 states, up from 11. Separately a few states reported slightly higher numbers.

Obama said it wasn't clear whether the flu would be more severe than others before it, and he said the swine flu is a cause for special concern because it is new strain and people have not developed an immunity to it.

Government agencies are preparing in case the flu comes back in a more virulent form during the traditional flu season, the president said, talking of an overarching effort to help schools and businesses while also responding to pleas for help from other countries.

Meanwhile, Houston-based Continental became the first U.S. carrier to curtail service. Many travelers have become increasingly concerned about going to Mexico, though authorities there said new cases and the death rate was leveling off. Continental has over 500 flights a week between the United States and Mexico.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said Friday that no new deaths from swine flu were reported overnight for the first time since the emergency was declared a week ago. Mexico has confirmed 300 swine flu cases but stopped reporting suspected infections when the number approached 2,500. There have been a dozen confirmed deaths there from the flu, although reports have indicated that roughly 120 may have died from it.

Of the curtailment of airline flights, Continental's chairman and chief executive, Larry Kellner, said that "we were already experiencing soft market conditions due to the economy, and now our Mexico routes in particular have extra weakness."

No other U.S. carriers had announced capacity cuts. "We are hearing that there is a softening of demand to and from Mexico," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transportation Association, which represents airlines.

Clinics and hospital emergency rooms in New York, California and some other states are seeing a surge in patients with coughs and sneezes that might have been ignored before the outbreak.

The outbreak even touched the White House, which disclosed that an aide to Energy Secretary Steven Chu apparently got sick helping arrange Obama's recent trip to Mexico but that the aide did not fly on Air Force One and never posed a risk to the president.

The aide, Marc Griswold, a former Secret Service agent who was doing advance work for Chu, told The Associated Press when reached at his Department of Energy office Friday that he was feeling better.

He declined to elaborate beyond comments in the Washington Post Friday.

"We're not the Typhoid Mary family, for goodness sake," he told the Post. "We've been told that we're not contagious. We're already past the seven-day mark for that."

So far U.S. cases are mostly fairly mild and, officials said, most so far haven't required a doctor's care.

Still, the U.S. is taking extraordinary precautions — including shipping millions of doses of anti-flu drugs to states in case they're needed.

Late Thursday the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was buying 13 million new treatment courses of antiviral drugs to replenish and grow the U.S. strategic stockpile. Eleven million treatment courses have been sent to states — 25 percent of each state's allotment — and the U.S. also announced plans Thursday to send 400,000 treatment courses to Mexico.

The World Health Organization is warning of an imminent pandemic because scientists cannot predict what a brand-new virus might do. A key concern is whether this spring outbreak will surge again in the fall.

The CDC added the following states Friday to its list of confirmed cases: New Jersey with five cases, Delaware with four, Illinois with three, Colorado and Virginia with two, and Minnesota and Nebraska each with one. The CDC reported one case in Kentucky and none in Georgia, while Georgia officials report one case there — that of a sickened Kentucky resident who traveled to Georgia.

CDC previously had confirmed cases in New York, Texas, California, South Carolina, Kansas, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, Michigan and Nevada

What I am finding more interesting than the progression of the disease (which IS fascinating) is the sniping, finger-pointing, and outright stupidity I'm seeing.  SERIOUSLY?  Don't call it "swine flu?"  It is a strain that has lived in pigs in years, the avian and human strain in the combination have lived in pigs for years, too.  I understand they want to alleviate some of the ridiculous overreaction to pigs and porcine products, but geeze, louise, this is STUPID!   It is a "swine flu".  Deal with it.  When I saw Israel was protesting the name "swine flu" I was appalled.  Then when Eqypt slaughtered all their pigs I was more appalled.  Petting piglets at a petting zoo is not likely to give you any problems, aside from dirty hands.  If you see an animal that looks sick, avoid it.  Common sense says you would do that ANYWAY.  Just out of curiosity, whatever happened to common sense?    It is a flu, it behaves like a flu.  I guess that's part of the problem.  MANY people think the flu is a stomach bug, and don't equate it only with the respiratory virus that makes you feel as though a mack truck has run you over.  A little reason and calm would be nice, but unfortunately, too many people thrive on drama and adrenaline.  This is something different from what we've seen before, true.  It's also true we don't have any natural immunity.  However, we also have many things in place that people fighting other pandemics did not have, including anti-virals and some sense about transmission and things of that nature.  Be careful, but don't seal yourself in a bubble!