China's south has been the breeding ground for diseases that jump between animals and humans because they often live in close proximity.

The infections were reported in four different areas in Guangdong province, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing information released by the provincial government.

No pigs were reported sickened by Streptococcus suis, the bacteria blamed for the human cases, Xinhua said. It wasn't immediately clear how the people were infected, but the disease is usually passed on through contact with raw pork or sick swine. The report did not say if person-to-person transmissions were involved.

Two of the infected people were still in hospital, Xinhua said, without providing more details.

Sichuan Outbreak Under Control

On Sunday, China's ministries of health and agriculture said that an outbreak of the disease in Sichuan province, hundreds of kilometers (miles) northwest of Guangdong, had been brought under control.

At least 38 people died in the epidemic, which was first detected in June, mostly farmers who butchered or handled infected pigs. More than 200 people were sickened.

Symptoms include high fever, nausea and vomiting, followed by meningitis, hemorrhaging under the skin, toxic shock and sometimes coma. Some patients have also suffered organ failure.

Pockets of infection have been discovered in recent days. Last week, two deaths were reported in Jiangsu province in the east, and Hong Kong has found a handful of cases in the past month.

In June, two human cases were reported in Guangdong.

One of them, a man from the city of Yangjiang, contracted the disease through a wound in his hand while butchering pigs, state media said then.

The meat from the pigs he slaughtered was sold at a local market by his wife but investigators were not able to find the buyers, state media said.

Emergency Measures

Yangjiang, along with Chao'an County and the cities of Nanxiong and Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, were the latest areas which had human infections, Xinhua said Monday.

Medical teams have been sent to investigate and help locals take protective measures, it said.

The Guangdong departments of health and agriculture have also been mobilized "to take emergency measures and work strenuously to prevent the disease from spreading," Xinhua said.

International experts on Streptococcus suis said the Sichuan outbreak was unusually virulent, with a large number of people falling sick and dying suddenly.

China's south has been the breeding ground for diseases that jump between animals and humans because they often live in close proximity.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome first emerged in Guangdong and killed nearly 800 people worldwide before subsiding in 2003. Beijing was criticized then for being slow to share information on the outbreak.