(ASHEVILLE) -- Buncombe County health officials are looking into 27 possible cases of a rare strain of salmonella. County Health Director Gibbie Harris says salmonella outbreaks are usually caused by two things:

"Eating food or water that's been contaminated with the feces of a person who is ill with this. Salmonella is quite often spread by food workers who are ill, maybe don't wash their hands as well as they should, infect the food and then people eat it," she said.

Harris says in this case, probably both have happened. She says the symptoms that go along with this strain are more severe than in more common strains. They include high fever and fatigue, headache, loss of appetite, diarrhea and stomach pain.