“My hair, nails and skin fell out after the mosquito bite on vacation”

A woman had a holiday from hell after her skin peeled off and her hair and nails fell out when she was bitten by a tiger mosquito. Amy Wells, 37, developed a huge rash all over her body after the bite and was treated with antibiotics.

But they reacted with a drug she was already taking, and within days the skin all over her body blistered – leaving her looking like she’d been badly burned. He had to take ten weeks off and was left with scars all over his legs.

Amy, from Ashford, Kent, who works in quality control, said: “It was hell on earth. The blisters covered my whole body – even my eyes and lips. It was extremely painful. People kept asking me if I’ve been in a fire. It’s very strange. I’ve never had an allergic reaction.

Amy and now husband Charlie, 27, who works in security, traveled to the Dominican Republic on January 22, 2023 and got engaged four days later on her birthday. After a day of swimming with the dolphins on January 28, Amy woke up with a rash on her neck that quickly spread to her entire body.

Amy went to the island’s hospital where she was given an antibiotic called ceftriaxone, which is not commonly used in the UK, she says. A language barrier meant they didn’t talk about how she took amoxicillin for a tooth infection.

Amy remained in the hospital and was allowed to fly home on February 1 as her infection markers had subsided, but she had small blisters appearing on her body. Her thighs swelled to twice their normal size during the ten-hour flight and she felt like they were on fire, she said.

She went to an urgent care center in Faversham and was referred to A&E at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent. She said: “I knew something was wrong. I felt like I was burning from the inside out. the blisters started to break in while I was in A&E – they were oozing fluid. It was horrible.”

Amy said she had to wait 56 hours in A&E before being given a bed on a corridor, then a ward, because the hospital was so full. Doctors noticed puncture wounds on Amy’s legs, which they identified as mosquito bites, she said.

Amy believes she was bitten by tiger mosquitoes, which carry dengue fever and the Zika virus. There have been warnings of an increase in mosquitoes in European holiday resorts, including Spain, France, Italy and Greece. She believes an infection from the bites caused the first rash.

Doctors said the burn was caused by a rare reaction between the two antibiotics, she says. After the blisters appeared, her skin came off, but some of the skin stuck to her legs, leaving open sores that turned green after she was discharged.

“I was really scared,” she said. It took her legs three weeks to heal, thanks to the cream, and she now has scars covering half of each leg below the knee.

Amy had to take ten weeks off. Amy’s fingernails and toenails fell off in April and her hair began to thin, and by May she was completely bald. A hair specialist explained that it was due to shock. She said: “Losing my hair was the hardest part – your hair really defines you.

“I looked in the mirror and said ‘that’s not me’. Amy and Charlie were married on October 14th.

Amy said: “After everything that’s happened, we’ve decided not to stay. You never expect something like this to happen to you. It’s such a rare disease and I was so healthy.”