At least 38 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 has confirmed.

Meanwhile, another 166 people were suspected of being infected and were still waiting for test results, the Guangdong Provincial Health Department announced in a statement late Wednesday.

Most of the infected suffered fevers, joint pains and rashes, it said.

"All the patients are in stable condition. There are no severe cases or deaths," it said.

Local health authorities have set up a task force of medical experts to oversee the treatment of the disease, it added.

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

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

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