At least 10 people in Dongguan, an industrial city in South China's Guangdong province, have been infected by the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus, the local health department confirmed.

"All the patients were from Xincun community in Wanjiang district," the Guangdong provincial disease prevention and control center said in a press release late Sunday.

It said 10 out of 15 blood samples tested positive for chikungunya virus on Saturday, but at least 76 others were suspected of infection and were still waiting for test results.

Most patients suffered fever, joint pains and rash, it said. "The majority of the patients have recovered. No death or serious cases were reported and no one was hospitalized for treatment."

The word "chikungunya" is Swahili for "that which bends up" referring to the stooped posture of patients afflicted by severe joint pains accompanying the disease.

Chikungunya fever, like dengue fever, is a mosquito-borne disease.

The chikungunya virus was carried mostly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Most infections were reported in tropical Africa and southeast Asia where the average winter temperature is over 18 degrees Celsius.

(Xinhua News Agency October 5, 2010)