LEWISTON — If you have a fever and a cough, you probably have the swine flu, said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are only testing a small minority of people,” Mills said Wednesday. “It’s probably quite prevalent (in Androscoggin County).”

A week ago, her office confirmed that three children here had been diagnosed with the H1N1 strain of influenza. School officials confirmed that all three were students at Poland Community School.

On Wednesday, the county’s confirmed numbers had jumped to eight. Mills declined to release specifics about where the sick people live. It makes little difference, she said.

Her office is routinely fielding calls from health workers in the county. Most want to know if the symptoms — mostly involving a fever and respiratory issues — might be the talked-about flu.

“We say, ‘Yeah, yeah. They have it,'” Mills said.