SINGAPORE, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Six people in Singapore have been infected by the mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday.

"This is the first instance of local transmission of the disease. Previous cases were imported, where patients caught the virus overseas and brought it back to Singapore," a Ministry of Health spokeswoman told Reuters.

Two patients have been admitted to the isolation ward of the Communicable Disease Centre.

All six patients were living in close proximity to each other in the southeastern part of the city-state. "It's still a localised infection at the moment," she added.

The Ministry of Health has begun to screen people living or working in the same area.

Chikungunya fever, like dengue fever, is a mosquito-borne disease, characterised by sudden onset of fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, joint pain, back pain, and sometimes a rash.

Most symptoms last for three to 10 days, but joint pains may last for weeks to months.

The Chikungunya virus was carried mostly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It caused an epidemic that began in Kenya in 2004 and spread to several Indian Ocean islands including the Comoros, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Madagascar, Mayotte and Reunion.

On tiny Reunion Island alone, more than a third of the population -- 266,000 people -- were infected, and 260 died.

(Reporting by Jennifer Tan; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

(jennifer.tan@reuters.com; +65-6403 5660; Reuters Messaging: jennifer.tan.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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