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The Centers for Disease Control is helping Arizona and Mexico health authorities investigate a diarrhea outbreak.

It started back in May.

"We've seen some increases in our campylobacter infection, which is a real fancy name for a diarrheal kind of infection," said Becky Brooks, director of the Yuma County Public Health Services District. "It causes diarrhea, sometimes abdominal pain and fever."

Brooks said there have been 36 cases in Yuma County in the past two months. Normally, there are 28 cases in an entire year. Fifteen cases also are being studied in the northern Mexican state of Sonora which borders Arizona.

Six of the Yuma cases have developed into Guillain-Barre syndrome, which, Brooks said, "is relatively rare."

"It is a condition that follows a lot of infections that has some tingling and numbness, can sometimes lead to paralysis in individuals."

Officials have not determined how the outbreak started or whether it originated in Arizona or Mexico.

"We don't know that part of it," Brooks said. "We are just now finding out all the cases and if there's any kind of connection. We really don't have a source yet. That's what we're working toward."

She said there's no sign the infection has spread to other Arizona counties.