I thought nothing of it but a friend of mine who was there with me told me it was blood poisoning and that I needed to get it looked at by a doctor. In Turkey you can buy anti-biotics over the counter so I thought I would just go to one of the many chemists in the area and get some and that would cure the problem. However, when I showed the ladies in the chemists they said in the best English they could manage “Doctor!”

Hmm – “maybe this is more serious than I thought” was my thinking, so I walked along to the nearest Doctor’s surgery and went in to show them my arm. The doctor on call immediately took me into a room and said “we need to get a large dose of anti-biotics into you as quickly as possible!”. Wow!

So for the next hour I lay there as an intravenous drip fed a large dose of antibiotics into my arm. I also had to go back every morning for the rest of my Turkish trip for the same treatment, and when I had to fly home the doctor also gave me a week’s supply of anti-biotic pills to take at home and finish.

In short my mosquito bite had become infected – probably because I had scratched it – leading to an infection which was moving up my arm and if it had reached my heart could have killed me!

Needless to say, after that experience I take keeping mosquitoes at bay very seriously indeed. And the best mosquito repellent I have found, and which I always have with me now when I go to Turkey, is Avon Mosquito Repellent (basically their Dry Oil Body Spray as featured on this website). I really have found it the best mosquito repellent available.